This label has got to fucking get their shit together as far as how they're packaging their releases. As with the only other release I've seen from Ironclad so far, the layout here is confusingly and inexcusably horrible. The imagery is pixilated and sloppy, the text is dull and just looks pasted into place with little thought... something about it is just very unprofessional and novice. I'm not sure what's up with that. Based on the presentation alone I thought this disc was going to blow ass, but it's actually pretty fucking good. Aside from some generic tremolo picking stuff it's totally in your face metalcore that's hard on the metal without going too far in that direction. Expect lightly distorted shouting vocals with a few faster death/thrash metal rhythms and a shitload of flat out moshpit madness in the form of chugging power chords and energetic grooves that keep it simple. "These Scars" even drops a surprising little melodic chord progression/lead melody combo, "24k" takes that angle farther with some melodic old school style chord progressions layered with more obviously melodic lead lines and some stuttered grooves, "Enough Said" throws in some killer dissonance, and so on. As for the recording, it needs some cleaning up, but they're not bad off where they are. The drums are too rigid to mesh with the thickness of the guitars, so they pop out, but I like the guitar tone a lot. I might like to hear more definition in the bass tone, but my main suggestion would be to make sure the guitars come forth and drive everything - keep those vocals and drums in check. Overall I really like a lot of these songs musically. When they get more into the tremolo picking they bore me quickly, but aside from that the unoriginality isn't a hindrance for me. But seriously, the label needs to either study up or hire someone who knows what they're doing to layout these CD's from now on. No one would even look twice at this thing if they weren't all that familiar with the band, and the package isn't representative of the music at all. I'd look out for this band, though. This is a strong debut.
[Ironclad]
Running time - 28:37, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: These Scars, Enough Said, This World is Dead to Me]
Ironclad Recordings - http://www.ironcladrecordings.com
