To What End? "Concealed Below the Surface" CD
[Crimes Against Humanity]
Hell yeah!  I was really into the last outing from this Swedish hardcore/punk band (featuring in its ranks members of a slew of notables), so I was psyched when this showed up.  Expect a solid foundation of crushing Swedish crust with male/female vocals, but writing-wise this band is pushing the genre into many more directions than any of their contemporaries.  And the cool thing is that they do so without straying too far from their core influences, but also without specifically sounding like too many other bands.  You'll find everything from straightforward heavy chord progressions that follow moderately fast tempos to midpaced rhythms that blend the heaviness with subtle melody, with occasional forays into more blatantly melodic territory or more obvious diversity throughout.  The dual vocal attack totally kicks ass, too.  The constant layering and tradeoffs really add a sense of energy to the already punchy songwriting, and just check out the huge backing shouts in tracks like "No One Left to Praise"!  Awesome stuff.  This time around there seem to be more little intricacies lingering here and there rather than entire songs that jump out at you immediately, so there's nothing as outright incredible or unexpected as "The Pressure is Gone", from their last record.  "Conspiracy" is the first track that really messes with the arrangements a little to get a good blend of catchy intensity and varied musical influences working; "Final Victory" opens with some added dissonance that continues to a subtler degree once the chunky chord progressions kick in; "Stolen Grace" has a couple of discordant breaks that give it a little more character; and "The Burden", the longest track at four minutes, drops a metallic break with alternate picking lead riffs.  "Mörkret Kryper På" uses hints of clean guitars and some extremely forceful midpaced chord phrasings that are a little thicker and more ominous in atmosphere - leading into closing instrumental "Confrontation" and its use of distorted computerized vocals under a thunderous and repetitious rhythm.  There are a few huge winners, though.  The awesome "Critical Moment" lets the bass play a larger role alongside more emphatic vocal work and has more of a rocked out vibe to it that totally sounds like Entombed circa "Wolverine Blues".  This song is one of the best herein without a doubt, and I'd love to hear the band branch out like that more often!  The similar "Poisoned Youth" is also among the catchier tracks with a blend of heavy rock and chunky hardcore, complete with some bluesy lead riffs and everything.  I'm definitely digging that angle big time.  The recording's pretty good, but I wish the guitar sound was a little thicker.  They've got a really atypical grit to the distortion going on that kind of sounds like an alternate take on the Sunlight sound, so there's a lot of texture there, but the guitars don't fill the space as much as I'd like due to an unnatural bite that lacks resonance.  The mix is crisp and I think the vocals and drums sound perfect, but the bass ought to be a touch louder and a heavier guitar tone could make these songs hit even harder.  None of these issues are too significant, but with minor improvements these cats would have one immense whopper on their hands here.  The layout looks pretty damn nice and uses bleak photography with an atypical look.  Most of the lyrics are in English with a few songs in Swedish, and the content is a slightly different take on your usual topics such as greed and corruption, drug abuse, hardships, etc.  "Concealed below the surface there is a gleam of hope, Where awareness grows, passion for change, And there will be, the final victory."  All in all this is another damn solid effort.  It's not as immediately innovative as "The Purpose Beyond" was, but there are definitely glimmers of increased creativity that point to a bright future for this band.  Without question this is one of the finest Swedish hardcore/punk acts out there right now, ranking high among my favorites, so I'm really excited to see where they'll go next.  Totally recommended... I really, really like this band a lot. (8/10)
Running time - 37:24, Tracks: 14
[Notable tracks: Conspiracy, No One Left to Praise, Critical Moment, Poisoned Youth, Mörkret Kryper På]
Crimes Against Humanity Records - http://www.cahrecords.com

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