Rogue Nation "The Sedition" CD
[Uprising]
I didn't know what to expect from this Canadian band, but they kick out some metallic hardcore with burly vocal shouts, a lot of straightforward chord progressions, some thrashier picking patterns, a few awesome melodic/dissonant riffs, the obligatory breakdowns, and even some quick little ripping metal solos on rare occasion. You've got your short, straight up fast hardcore tracks like "Giv'er", your go for the throat moshy metalcore songs such as "Porcelain", and longer tracks including more melody and diversity along the lines of "Dead Eyes". "Code Red" features some barely recognizable guest vocals by Chris Hannah from Propagandhi, and at the end of the disc they do an unlisted cover of Bob Marley's "Iron Lion Zion" with some guest vocals by Sean Muttaqi from Vegan Reich. I fucking despise Bob Marley, but they do a slightly tolerable job with the cover, even though it's still pretty crappy. The production's alright. The drums are really rigid but they do have some density and the cymbals sound good, there's a little bit of bass guitar noticeable, the vocals sound pretty good, and the guitars are heavy. The texture of the guitar tone bugs me at times, especially when one guitar drops out and things get choppy, but the bass tends to thicken things up well enough most of the time. A smoother crunch to the guitars would work a lot better, though. I don't mind the artwork. I like the painting that's on the cover just because it gives the record an atypical look for the genre, and everything else is nice and clean. The lyrics aren't my thing because they're sort of trying to be more than they are, so they come off as mildly political and somewhat jumbled, without really making any clear-cut points per se. "You kill in the name of progress, drive in the stake of fear, Greed is your prime directive, destroy everything dear, No remorse for the stolen culture as every treaty broke, Now you're on your new adventure, a new search for black and yellow gold..." I like this, but it needs something more. A few little spots sort of make it seem like the band doesn't really know what direction they want to go in, but then you've got perfect songs like "Dead Eyes" that effectively incorporate most all of their influences (including some female singing vocals) into a well developed composition. If all of this stuff was leaning in that direction I'd be all for it... (6/10)
Running time - 29:55, Tracks: 12
[Notable tracks: Porcelain, Dead Eyes, The Sedition]
Uprising Records - http://www.uprisingrecords.com

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