Ehhh... I'll give you three guesses what this is, and your first guess better be melodic Swedish death metalcore, because really, what else could it be? I've been less than impressed by what I've heard from this band in the past, and despite some fucking incredible riffs throughout this EP, I just can't say I'm into it. I'll start with the good: This is way more metal than most bands of this nature. There really aren't any forced chugga chugga mosh parts, and the slightly more rhythmic chord progressions that hint at that direction are still usually layered with octave chords or melodies that make more sense. They do pull the whole blistering screams mixed with nice singing vocals thing, but I think the singing here is really damn good, and I'd like to hear more of it versus the generic screaming. Songwriting wise it's not that groundbreaking, but they do kick out some atypical riffing that focuses more on emphatic melody and dissonance that I find to be quite fucking good - definitely their strongpoint. Sadly, and here's where the negative aspects begin, a good portion of those riffs are overshadowed by all of the boring, run of the mill tremolo picking and overused Swedish runs (dual guitar harmonies, generic melody lines, etc.). I could deal without most of the heavier death metal pull-off styled riffs, too. In my opinion the songs are also overly long, each running five to seven minutes, whereas shorter and more focused tracks could be far more memorable. I can live with the recording for the most part. Some of the cymbals hover over everything else and become distracting, but the bass has a nice spot in the middle of the mix, the guitar tone is pretty good, the vocals don't jump out at you, etc. I like that the singing passages are mixed back in with the instruments. At times some of the crisper guitar layering sounds a little bit messy as far as tuning and stuff goes, but just barely. Not too bad. I could go either way on the layout. I don't like it that much, but it's not awful. The thick, high gloss coat is nice, but the actual imagery and colors/arrangement is sort of crammed together and uninteresting. Maybe I'm sick of seeing flowers on CD covers, but I think it's more than that. The lyrics are personal and somewhat longer than most bands of this nature, but most of the content is generic metaphorical mess, with a few lines here and there actually hitting on some interesting phrases. I'll give 'em the benefit of the doubt just because they do have some fucking majorly killer riffs happening, but I'd far prefer it were they to introduce more singing vocals and employ a direct emphasis on the more midpaced melodic chords and harmonies (see the start of "Portraits of the Dead"). This is the band's best work yet, so hopefully they'll filter out a few more of the usual trappings.
[Life Sentence]
Running time - 29:33, Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Hearts and Minds, Portraits of the Dead]
Life Sentence Records - http://www.lifesentencerecords.com
