Damn, this band could be fucking great if they work at it. Their brand of metalcore reminds me of a mixture of Harvest (in part due to the furious vocal screams and forceful rhythms) with something a bit more "emo" in the form of numerous clean passages and dynamic shifts. There's plenty of heaviness but they never shed the melody, and there are a lot of killer dissonant riffs that are far more creative than what most of these bands are doing these days. I'm definitely brought back to the mid-90's, when metalcore was a literal mixture of hardcore and metal that was a shitload more memorable than what it's turned into. The singing vocals are sort of weak here, they need a lot of work to really be effective, but the screaming is great, and I really like the songwriting a lot. From the thrashy riffing in the succinct "From Redhouse With Love (007)" to the eerie layers of soft clean guitars in "Doll House", they've got a lot going on. The recording sort of stinks, and that holds them back too. The bass sounds perfect and plays an awesome role in the mix, and the vocals sound good (well, the singing needs more clarity, but the rest is fine), but the drums are too rigid and the guitar tone is sort of raw and scratchy, which comes off sounding sloppy at times, and definitely lacks the crunchy power that the rhythms would benefit from. The clean guitars usually sound awesome however, so they are on the right track I suppose. The CD-R comes in a simple sleeve that's largely white with some blurry, faintly colored abstract photos on the front, and elsewhere alongside the song titles and recording information. And that's that. No lyrics or any kind of insert, etc. This is obviously a demo, I mean, it needs work. But I think it does what it's supposed to in demonstrating what the band could be capable of down the road. I'm definitely interested to see where they'll take this. Not bad. Very promising, in fact.
[self-released]
Running time - 17:49, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: The Way Laura Won't, Doll House]
Son of the Mourning - http://www.sonofthemourning.com
