At Wits End "Platinum" CD
[Superhero]
Modern metalcore from Cleveland that blends churning mosh rhythms and sick vocal screams with a little bit of singing, some borderline rock riffs, and just the right amount of subtle melody. There are only two things barely holding this back from being great: 1. the singing is fucking terrible, and 2. the recording is too muffled. Other than that I'm really digging this. The production is damn close to the mark with a chunky guitar tone and good density with a fair mix, but I'd like to hear more bass and a little less rigidity to the percussion. Above all though, there needs to be a lot more space and brightness, as the EP comes off as somewhat lacking due to the oddly muddy sound. Other than that this is a damn strong set of songs, aside from the singing. The songwriting is solid and often memorable, with a good amount of changes that don't get chaotic or forced, and the aggressive vocals are dead on. The singing, though? Shit, it's just bad. It's totally lifeless and forced and has no character at all, so it just sounds plain and out of place and totally kills the vibe. I can see what they're going for, and if the dude could actually sing it would work very well, but if nothing else just toss that shit and scream all the time, because the songs would benefit. "Electric Mayhem" possesses a little more of a sludgy rock groove at times, "Five Star Murder" is more densely melodic and moderately paced, "Lick Nine Volts" is more rhythmic and packs a damn good punch, etc. "Fifteen Minutes" most literally blends heavy breakdowns and borderline emo-laden melodies, but the singing absolutely decimates the song and makes it very much unbearable... so, I'll again stress just how fucking bad that aspect of this otherwise solid release is. The layout looks damn good, with lots of bright red, white, and black with consistent imagery and patterns and some dirty textures. No lyrics are included, but everything does look really nice in my opinion. This isn't half bad at all. I hate the singing vocals and I'm honestly stunned they went that route considering the detrimental impact it has on the end result, but hopefully they'll iron that out for next time, because they could really go somewhere with this stuff. (6/10)
Running time - 24:05, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Paint the Town Red, Lick Nine Volts]
Superhero Records - http://www.superherorecords.com

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