Embrace Today "Soldiers" CD
[Deathwish]
15 tracks of surprisingly metallic hardcore in 21 minutes! These guys don't mess around: The songs are short (only two reach past two minutes), fast, and pissed off, with a good mix of classic three chord hardcore and burly breakdowns, as well as some slightly more melodic or dissonant playing on occasion. It's all pretty straightforward as far as the writing goes, and the vocals never let up from lung-busting screams. Now, a lot of the songs do sort of sound the same, which would be problematic if this record was any longer, but there are some standouts as well. "Yours Truly" is a little bit more intricate as far as the guitar playing goes, reminding me of a lot of what was going on in the 90's as far as this general style is concerned, and I'm all over that stuff. "A Song for You" changes quickly from its Black Flag-esque intro to being a little bit more metallic with some lead lines over heavy rhythms, and back to the no frills metalcore with a vicious breakdown that's sure to cause a mêlée live. And "Believe in No One" has some chugging picking patterns and melodic riffs mixed with straight mosh that sounds like it was taken from the early Anthrax handbook - you can't lose with that. I don't like the production, though. I really can't take the drum sound, I don't know... the kick drums sound really flimsy and stick out a lot, the cymbals are thin, and the snare/everything else is just sort of there. The bass is hard to hear so there's a gap in that department, and the guitar tone, while sort of heavy, is unnatural and lacks crunch. The only element that sounds dead on would be the vocals, I've got no complaints there. But they need to beef up everything else to really do the damage that these songs would be capable of under optimal conditions. The layout is awesome. There are some incredible manipulated photos/illustrations of crumbling cityscapes completely engulfed in flame, as well as many bold X's that hint at the straightedge content of some of the lyrics. Most of the lyrics are personal though, appearing on a jet black set of three panels in tiny, tiny text. "Gagging. Choking on your broken words. I hope they fucking hurt. I want to see you die. This time I will crush your dreams. This time I will destroy everything you know. You can't control me. You don't know shit." Yep, yeah... that about says it, right? This is good, but it would be an entirely different record with a better recording. I'd like to hear more from them in the future, another EP for sure... a full-length might be pushing it were they not to introduce more variety, though. (6/10)
Running time - 21:56, Tracks: 15
[Notable tracks: Buried, Yours Truly, A Song for You, Believe in No One]
Deathwish Inc. - http://www.deathwishinc.com

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