This band contains members of Living Sacrifice and in all truth it doesn't sound all that different from newer Living Sacrifice, at least musically. The throaty vocal shouts/screams are a bit of a change, but most of the music is chugging, groove laden metalcore with some start/stop riffing and a good sense of melody on occasion. There are definitely some nu-metal trappings employed here, but it's not cheesy, and there are a lot of total metal riffs as well, so don't take that reference the wrong way. I heard bits and pieces of this band's last album and I seem to remember it being faster and more metallic than this one, but maybe I'm mistaken. "The Hero" breaks out some singing vocals and tons of layered guitar harmonies during the chorus, immediately kicking things up a notch in the catchy and memorable departments. I definitely think the band should explore that direction a lot more, because all of the midpaced start/stop grooves get tiresome pretty quickly. "I Bury You" also mixes in some solid singing vocals, but the tempo is also a lot faster, making it a far better song as a whole. But "Abandoned", on the other hand, is a combination of everything: The melody, the heaviness, the chugging midpaced tempos, the singing and the screaming... and there's even an awesome break with both clean and acoustic guitars, making this one of the most diverse and effective tracks on the record. The solo is nice, too. They definitely need to throw out some more leads. "On Your Own" is faster all around and has a melodic Swedish vibe coming into play, which definitely favors their writing talents and the aggressive vocal styles. The recording is pretty fucking great here. The mix is thick and well textured, everything plays an equal role for the most part, and it sounds really modern without heading into overproduced territory. I mean, this is definitely a polished record, but there's a certain warmth and density that works out very well. As with most Solid State releases the layout looks great on this thing. The color scheme and textures are consistent, they only use a few tasteful fonts that work well together, the imagery of the mosquito on the front cover is great... it's simple for the most part but visually appealing. Lyrically the Christian slant is kept at a tactful level that doesn't alienate the listener, and much of the content is more directly personal, "This sickness that you spread like cancer kills any hope I have left, Longing for a change, Just like you I became the man I hated to be, The man I'll always be, The man I hated I'll always be, Fatherless in my heart it seems, All I've known of this life is all the pain I have inside." The main problem with this record is inconsistent songwriting. None of the chugging groove riffs are very good at all, so I find myself listen to this saying to myself, "Okay, when are they gonna do the melodic part with the singing vocals?" because those parts are so much better. I don't mind the aggressive vocals at all, but the melodic riffing and singing vocals are so much more memorable, they really ought to speed things up a bit and just throw out all of the senseless monotony of the basic, bland chord progressions. Too many potentially awesome songs are ruined by having great parts wrapped up in a less than perfect whole. Take for example "Seems Like Forever", with its fucking amazing chorus and a few great riffs, contrasted by terrible spoken vocals and harmonic nu-metal grooves that have a shitty hip-hop influence happening. This isn't a bad record, but these guys could do some serious damage under different circumstances.
[Solid State]
Running time - 38:55, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: I Bury You, Abandoned, Existence in Despair, Seems Like Forever]
Solid State Records - http://www.solidstaterecords.com
