Achilles "The Dark Horse" CD
[Hex]
Hell yeah, here's the debut full-length from these Rochester bashers, and it delivers every bit as powerfully as I had hoped, taking their brand of frenetic, angular metalcore to new heights with 10 tracks in a very focused 27 minutes. There are a good amount of back and forth changes throughout everything from warped slides and repetitious pull-off runs to subtly melodic dissonant textures and surging power chords, but trust me when I say that this is definitely one more directed at fans of the top shelf material offered in years past by notables like Deadguy and Botch, so there's a definite air of quality to this work. "Ivory" is among the more rhythmic tracks, getting a bit heavier in certain regards and also letting the raspy vocal shouts/screams gain some breathing room; while "Over Our Heads" tosses in a dash of speed here and there to pick up the energy level; and the title track begins with the rhythm section running the show before an appropriately darker disposition takes hold and continues to build back and forth from acerbic guitars to rhythm section dominance. Worth noting is that the drummer's pretty damn good, fleshing things out nicely with a range of patterns and fills that are just flashy enough. Good stuff. "In Lights" opens slower with a little more room given to let some of the reverberated guitar notes ring out before quickly shifting into an odd timed churn with thicker picking patterns and off kilter rhythms that kind of build into a weirdly catchy little hint of melody before leading into the 27-second instrumental, "[Reprise]", which really disappears before it has time to situate itself. However, "Wake Me When it Thunders", the longest track at just over four minutes, continues in a similar vein at first, later dropping more of the chunky picking patterns, harmonics, and stuttered rhythms displayed elsewhere on the disc - granted in a more memorable and at times powerful manner. Closer ")))" is another instrumental, but this time allowing for pretty much the only appearance of clean guitars herein, and I must say, the shit sounds fuckin' awesome, and the way the distortion suddenly jumps in is really damn strong, so I'd love to hear them work a little more of the softer stuff into their usual framework for added dynamics. The recording sounds fucking excellent, too. Everything is clear, the tones warm and natural... I don't think I'd really change anything at all. The percussion is nice and spacious with a crisp snap to the snare and a good balance between the cymbals and the drums themselves, the bass is dense and able to wander out on its own to become more prominent when necessary, the guitars are just heavy enough to pack a major punch during the more rhythmic moments while also retaining a nice sense of bite for some of the noisier playing, and the vocals fall right in line alongside the instruments. Very well done. The visuals are all set as well, with a consistent color scheme that combines jumbled photographs and textures with sketchy illustrations and slanted text arrangements that are still easily legible. The lyrics are all actually rather brief, keeping things open for interpretation: "So what does it take to break through? Skulls are thick and I'm just sick, These words don't resonate like they should..." Overall this band is one of the best out there for this particular style right now. Their songwriting is more interesting and forceful than their contemporaries and they're really securing excellent recordings that benefit their approach greatly. I'd like to hear them explore the contrast between their various influences a little more in future efforts to keep a number of the tracks from sounding so similar to one another, but with such a compact record as this that's not something that causes a disturbance in the listening experience. This comes absolutely recommended for fans of this particular niche of the hardcore related playing field. (7/10)
Running time - 27:21, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Over Our Heads, The Dark Horse, Wake Me When it Thunders, )))]
Hex Records - http://www.hanginghex.com

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