Whilst new rockers on the block Silverthorne clearly have both feet rooted in the past on their new, debut EP Tear The Sky Wide Open, there’s an undeniable yet almost indefinable freshness to their approach which means they never get bogged down simply repeating the glories of others.

This may be because their compulsion to look backwards spans the full gamut of hard rock’s creative peak, from the late sixties to the end of the twentieth century. Hence the brooding blues of Black River Rising, whilst signposting names like Coverdale and Cornell with the incendiary vocalising of Pete Shoulder, actually also reflects the gap between the glory days of those two names, resulting in a curiously timeless – or rather time suspending – feel to material that should actually be a lot easier to place in the rock n’roll timeline.

Shoulder is also a more than capable guitarist whether soloing like a demon on Black River… or riffing effectively on the funky Movin’, which carries an air of Lenny Kravitz about it and shows off the rock steady rhythm partnership of former Whitesnake man Brian Tichy and bassist Daniel Spree to great effect as they lay down the foundations over which Shoulder struts his stuff with passion and purpose.

Closing track Haunted By The Dawn is probably where everything hangs together best, a spacey, prog-tinged rocker that recalls the late seventies with it’s galloping rhythms and soaring vocals. Shoulder is again very much a star, but Silverthorne as a unit is tough and well drilled, leaving this debut EP as a tantalising glimpse of what might come next for the band. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait too long to find out!

Tear The Sky Wide Open is out on February 21st.