Review: Incarnate “A Dark Age of Lies” CD

Metalcore from The Netherlands that has the 90's styled European approach going on, with some more traditionally chugging metallic hardcore chord progressions, lots of note-based metal riffs and sinister dual guitar harmonies, gruff vocals that are leaning towards growls, and a few more modern influences in the form of some tremolo picking and stuff. They need a little work to really nail it, but they've got a good starting point in place. I think the recording is one of the minor hitches that could make a difference, too. This sounds decent, but the guitars need to be thicker and more in your face, and the bass should probably be a touch louder and more defined as well. The drums sound pretty good, so with a more forceful and dominant guitar tone some of this stuff would be amazing (the midpaced intro to "Hate" would absolutely crush with the proper sound in place). I don't mind the vocals, but everything needs a little extra push. As far as the writing goes, they tend to be best at the midpaced metallic hardcore rhythms and some of the breakdown type of stuff. Sometimes the speed and tremolo picking can get stale, but they never hit on anything that's in the generic Swedish vein at all. "State of Mind" is a great example of what the band does best, opening with some straight up power chords and smatterings of metal with some cool dual guitar interaction - all at a moshy sort of pace that never gets too fast, but does shift adequately. Most of the songs are four to five minutes, with "Day of Suffering" hitting six, so they could probably stand to trim the fat a little to keep things focused and hard-hitting without any downtime at all, but I can live with it either way. "Day of Suffering" actually makes good use of its time with an acoustic intro and some sparse slower riffing that doesn't get stale. The vocals also get a little more textured in this one, which is kind of cool. The CD-R comes in a standard jewel case with a decent layout that's of a good level of print quality. There's not much to it, but the lyrics and everything are included so I'm fine with it. Lyrically the material is bleak and deals with inner turmoil and that kind of thing. "An existence of agony, victimized, Conquered self-control but fell in demise, What is lost can't be gained back, A new vision, a new hope I what I lack..." Not a bad debut for these guys. I'm not blown away, but I'm a sucker for this style, so I'll look forward to hearing their future work. If they can work out the kinks they'll definitely be one to watch for fans of Liar, Congress, and that type of 90's action. I'd have given this a 7/10 if the recording were stronger, so... watch out for these guys.