Review: Action/Crowley’s Passion “Split” CD

After a rather unnecessary intro of dark hip-hop sounding beats and synths with samples of screaming and such, Action (Czech Republic) drops four tracks of straight up metalcore to start things off. It sounds very much like the H8000 sort of style back in the 90's, with harshly shouted vocals, chunky midpaced riffs with a significant Slayer influence, and just the right amount of moshiness. I don't care for their recording, as the drums are far too rigid and cut straight through the mix, but there's a lot of potential otherwise. It's nothing new, but some of the melodic elements are promising and overall they write solid riffs that transition pretty well. "Forever Forsaken" is a bit slower and has a great Hatebreed meets subtle melody vibe (with a little more obviousness to the hardcore and metal influences and strong buildups/breakdowns), but it's "Final Stand" that really slows things down to a crushing rhythmic pulse and even shifts to growling vocals on occasion for a vicious attack that makes for a killer fuckin' track. Lyrically the songs are pretty bleak, but the explanations provided show that the band has a more serious and encouraging message, speaking out against the corruption and senseless atrocities of war, environmental issues, drugs and sexual abuse, etc. Pretty standard fare, but they do their thing, you know? If the drums blended in with the rest of the music they'd have made more of an impact (the guitar tone could use more force as well), though shortening the songs would also achieve a greater focus, but look out for 'em in the future... there's some good shit here. After another synth/beat segue, Crowley's Passion (Germany) unloads four of their own - taking a very similar road to Action but perhaps focusing more on the metallic side, and with a more aggressive midrange sneer to the vocals. Make no mistake though, there's a lot of crunch in here... and a few of the melodic tinges get pretty blatant as well (on rare occasion). "Solution" picks up the pace a bit and hints at thrashier riffing, while "World's Justice" falls into an effective but typical melodic Swedish format with lots of tremolo picking and dual guitar interaction. It's the chunkier material, such as "Assassins of Oblivion", that comes across the most effectively, though. Sadly they, too, suffer from an inadequate recording. It's more balanced overall, but it's also noisier and thinner, so a lot of the edge gets lost and thus pulls away from the heaviness of the material. Most of the lyrics are pretty sinister, with one track dealing with animal rights, and others seeming to hint at personal turmoil, religion, etc. At times the language barrier can make things a bit rough to understand, but some of the more pointed tracks are more straightforward in attack. Visually everything is consistent and contains dirty textures layered with figurative images and your usual guns and ammunition and whatnot - nothing overly interesting, but it looks pretty good. Both bands would do some damage with stronger recording sessions under their belts, and as songwriters Action hits a little harder on this one, so... we'll see where they go from here.