Belgian metalcore that's heavy on the metal and lighter on the core. I like it, though. There are some weak spots that need work, but they're on the right track. The weaknesses reside mostly in the production and the band's penchant for melodic Swedish death metal riffing, but thankfully most of the riffs have more to offer than standard dual guitar harmonies and tremolo picking. I also think the vocals are fucking awesome. They're just over the top screams with a few spoken moments, but the screaming has a much more acerbic tone than most of these bands, and that makes a difference. Most of the songs mix up the tempos but stick to largely midpaced rhythms with better than average riffing that blends the simplistic mosh parts with the more modern melodic death metal edge. "Eleven" is one of the few songs that brings in generic discordant chord progressions and such, but I'm not all that annoyed by the run of the mill guitar parts since most of the riffs have more feeling than that. One thing that totally needs to fucking go is the one-minute orchestral keyboard intro to "The Weak", because that shit is weak. I hate it when hardcore-ish bands try to bring in that whole keyboard angle because they never pull it off and it only ruins the continuity and wastes time. Get rid of that junk, because the rest of the song is pretty damn good. When it comes to the production, it just comes off as a bit flat. The drums are in decent shape, as is the bass, but the guitars need more distortion and more punch. They're clear, but can be choppy, which brings out minor falters in the playing and makes some of the more technical riffs slip up. The clean guitars also feel like they lack tonality (as well as apparently experiencing some tuning issues), so I'd just do something to beef up those guitars and then they should be in better shape. I will say that the acoustic guitars in "The Divine Within" sound absolutely amazing, though! The layout looks pretty damn good, with lots of bright colors and collaged textures with small, crisp text. The lyrics are a blend of personal topics dealing with fairly bleak images of vengeance and betrayal, etc. It's nothing new or particularly exciting, truth be told. The main thing these guys need to do is score a more powerful recording and hone their writing to achieve a more energetic delivery. Better production will help them along the way in that respect, but speeding up the less typical rhythms could also be promising. "Remains" is definitely pointing in the right direction, for instance.
[Genet]
Running time - 35:01, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: The Divine Within, Remains, The Weak - Part II]
Genet Records - http://www.genetrecords.com
