Not bad at all. The recording is a little raw, but other than that this Japanese act kicks out some great melodic hardcore with just the right amount of lightly metallic smatterings and energetic bursts of speed. The vocals are midrange screams with some gang backup shouts at times, and the songwriting combines a lot of guitar layering with heavier rhythms and octave chords or slightly dissonant runs ala a more straightforward Shai Hulud meets slightly more involved traditional hardcore with a little heavy emo or something. "New Greed" kicks in after a brief noisescape intro with lots of speedy chord progressions and a good dose of liveliness, "Change Sorrow Into Rage" picks up the pace and throws around some excellent discordant arpeggios, and "Watching the Sky" opens with a killer bass run before going into some of the more angular chord phrasings and arrangements of the disc - granted things are still focused and very tangible. Meanwhile "Forever" starts out a little slower and has some chunkier rhythm playing that still maintains a melodic undercurrent and definitely pops out from the other songs. There's an outro afterwards that runs damn near 10 minutes of experimental noise textures before leading into some rawer tracks that I assume make up bonus material from an older recording session (I think it's a demo). The added songs are similar in their contrast of melody and heaviness, but the overall vibe is a bit more aggressive on the demo tracks, so despite a good dose of speed it's still not quite as energetic or interesting to me. The sound on the EP itself is good, but could be better for their style. It's a little noisy and messy in the mix, but the tones aren't so bad. The bass needs a little more breathing room and the drums could stand to be smoothed over, whereas the guitars are a little dirty, but it's strange because for the most part everything still falls together nicely. It just needs a little more cleanliness to ensure that no details get lost. Visually things look pretty cool with some nice color band shots and photographs of cityscapes and such arranged with lots of blank white space, so it ends up looking pretty clean and spaced out. The lyrics are definitely a little rough since the band is singing in English, but for the most part the message is communicated and seems to be one that's focusing on perseverance and hope, taking control of your life to make the most of it, and that sort of thing. Not bad. I'm not really into the demo tracks, but the newer material is solid. It's a shame that means there's basically only about 10 minutes of core content, but those four songs (excluding the intro and outro) are really good, so I'd like to hear more from this band.
[Gods Child]
Running time - 30:25, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Change Sorrow Into Rage, Forever]
Gods Child Music - http://www.godschild.com.hk
