No thanks. I've enjoyed this Canadian band's brand of melodic Swedish death metal gone hardcore in the past, but the recording on this thing is annoying as fuck, so I really can't take it. It's all the drums' fault, too. The songwriting's decent, and the instruments tend to sound alright, but the god damn drums are completely lifeless and clicky, not to mention loud as fuck. They slice straight to the front of the mix and obscure what really needs to be running the show: Fucking guitars. The guitar tone is heavy and pretty well controlled (still needs more crunch and fullness, though - it has a weird twang to it), the bass tone sounds awesome, then you've got those powerless fucking drums rat-tat-tatting away all over the place. The band writes more unique riffs than most playing this style, sometimes opting for more literal hardcore chord progressions, other times typical dual guitar harmonies, and then some sludgier slow riffing as well, which is cool. It's nothing mindblowing, but I'd be able to live with it if the production were better. I'm still amazed that bands on a label the size of Victory can find a way to come off with a recording that sounds this weak. I hate harping on shit like that, especially when I've heard tons of records that sound worse, but god damn... I can't be the only person who fees this way? The only fault I'd cite with the songwriting here is that it's a little too slow across the board, they don't pick up the pace enough. It all starts to sound the same after awhile, and the best parts are often the chunky breakdowns (which is sort of rare). I don't mind the vocal consistency though, the dry screams are pretty good, and it's cool that they're not trying to throw singing all over the place at all. The solos are awful, though. Why play a solo if you've got to play it all slow and make it so short that it has no time to develop? They just sound awkward and unnecessary. I'm not wild on the layout here. It's very minimal, mostly text. The photos that appear are cool, and the simplistic cover is fine, but I fucking hate the typeface used throughout. It's one of those goofy fonts that's faked to look like handwriting, but really just looks cheesy and doesn't fit. Poor choice there. Most of the songs are personal and deal with that kind of stuff or issues relating to the scene, with a few hinting at larger topics like religion and the cycle of work, so it's nothing particularly new or exciting there. If I really, really liked these songs, I could maybe force myself to get past the drum sound to dig this record, but there's nothing truly new here at all, and the most promising aspect's of the band's writing are overshadowed by the typical trappings and a general lack of energy. Their last record on Goodfellow was definitely a lot better than this.
[Victory]
Running time - 36:27, Tracks: 14
[Notable tracks: pick a few, they've all got their good and bad parts, but none truly hit me]
Victory Records - http://www.victoryrecords.com
