7/10

With their first EP 'A Quiet Riot Inside', Limerick’s newest alt-indie force neptune blood arrive with a beautifully controlled detonation. It’s four tracks that twist, shimmer, and explode in all the right ways, as the band carve out a sound both nostalgic and startlingly fresh.

Across the collection, neptune blood stitch together the melodic punch of early-millennial indie with a darker, dream-soaked undercurrent. Their songwriting brims with the nocturnal energy of neon streets, fleeting glances, and the blur between clarity and chaos. You can hear the years of experience each member brings, but also a hunger that feels brand new, as if they’ve all been waiting for this exact configuration to unlock something vital.

'Midnight Showing' still hits like a secret rendezvous at the edge of town with its tight rhythms, washed-out guitars, and Ronan Mitchell’s vocal threading longing through every bar. 'Best Laid Plans' lands with a kaleidoscope of industrial textures and hallucinatory edges, a song that feels like wandering through a dream where the machinery is alive and breathing. It’s bold, jagged, and hypnotic; proof that neptune blood aren’t afraid to tilt the whole thing off its axis.

'In Calico' follows with a rush of colour, all jangly, restless, and irresistibly melodic, the kind of track that captures the nervy flutter of wanting more than you can say aloud. While closing track 'Huge If True' brings the band’s strengths into sharp focus. It glides through styles with ease, shape-shifting without ever losing its emotional centre. Guitars snarl then soften, beats tighten then unravel, and the whole thing moves with a confidence rare in a debut. It’s adventurous, gripping, and endlessly replayable.

Recorded with Ben Wanders in the heart of Limerick, the EP captures the pulse of a city and the spark of a band hitting ignition. There’s fire in these songs, but also an inner tension that simmers below the surface, giving the EP its name and its power.