Opposition of One "In the Line of Change" CD
[Strike First]
It's rare to come across a christian hardcore band from Germany, but that is indeed the case with this brutal metalcore act. A lot of people refuse to listen to christian bands if they don't agree with the lyrical messages, but I don't really give a shit as long as the music's good, and these guys do indeed drop some crushing material here. Expect tons of 90's styled European metalcore with thick power chord breakdowns, midpaced note-based runs that come off somewhat like old Slayer riffs, lots of chunky east coast rhythms (also coming from more of a classic 90's style - think of the kind of stuff that was on the "East Coast Assault" compilations), and totally vicious strained vocal screams with some backup shouts to boot. "In His Promise" closes with programmed beats and spoken vocals and that sort of kills the flow for a minute, so they're definitely best suited to sticking with the no bullshit brutality and plowing right through. "Temptation" is among the shorter and more straightforward tracks with textbook breakdowns and plenty of force, "No Fool" slows things down and brings in tons of harmonics to make itself stand out, with closer "Silence" unloading tons of crushing rhythms in its longer 5+ minutes of time. They also offer up a cover of "We Will Not Be Stopped" by Dodgin' Bullets, who I'm not familiar with, but the track has a hip-hop sort of thing going on vocally, and it's actually one of the best songs herein (though some of the vocal passages do come off as slightly cheesy). The recording is a little muddy, but sounds damn good and only needs minimal tweaking. The vocals can lean out front just a touch since everything else is so thick and oppressive, but there's enough definition for the bass to plunk away right behind the guitars, and the drums sound okay. There's definitely a little bit of an unnatural rigidity to the snare and stuff, which can be distracting, but the guitar tone is damn good, so if they clear up a little bit of the extra noise and low-end they'd be totally set. The layout looks very nice with lots of consistent imagery and dirty textures with clean text arrangements packing in plenty of content, as each song has a brief explanation supplied as well. A lot of the lyrics deal with the usual topics like hardships and frustrations, but tend to take a positive spin through that christian angle, often focusing on forgiveness and compassion and such. I personally am not into that stuff at all and tend to be bothered by lyrics that can be so over the top in that vein that they alienate the listener, which is the case here in many instances, but the music is great and they're doing their thing so... it is what it is. It's strange for such aggressive and pissed off music to carry a more hopeful theme, but you can't really decipher the lyrics so it definitely comes across as pretty volatile material regardless. This is good stuff, especially for a debut full-length. (7/10)
Running time - 40:24, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Temptation, We Will Not Be Stopped, No Fool, Silence]
Strike First Records - http://www.strikefirstrecords.com

This review has been displayed 2155 times.