Defects are a new up and coming metalcore band that are releasing their debut album Modern Error. Throughout the 14 tracks the band harness the trending modern metal tropes that have been made famous by metal acts like Architects and Wage War with it’s low tuned riffage and factory tight drums, even though the band have this modern delivery it a comes in a genuine package.
The first full length track on this album Scapegoat brings us classic old school meaty metalcore pedal tone riffs which combines a modern flavour with it’s new school technicality whilst being backed by bouncy drum beats. The vocals come in with some fast pace harsh vocal phrases that would give Briton Bond from Wage War a run for him money whilst they are traded off with some modern clean vocal melodies in the choruses.
End Of Days brings in some eastern scaled technical riffs that combines bands such as Monuments and Architects especially with it’s djenty riffages, which is followed by some pitched whammyed breakdowns. The clean choruses on this album come in a powerful package that reminisces of the former guitarist of Bury Tomorrow Jason Cameron's delivery that just naturally cut through the mix.
Dream Awake takes a melodic route with it’s factory standard mainstream song structures, placing the harsh vocals aside and going full melodic delivery with soaring choruses. On Dream Awake we also get some melodic solos that swoon from rapid phrases to melodically spaced out sung notes that tail perfectly into the final chorus.
Another Heart To Bleed gets us back into familiar territory with it’s technical riffs and tasty anthemic choruses. Recurring brings in a great match made in heaven with combining the old and new ways of metal. Opening with some classic Architects style technical riffs which is then followed by Slipknot styled thrashy energy that are gelled well with relentlessly accurate double kicks before it dives into some Lamb oO God meets Wage War styled half time grooves.
Lockdown come with some classic old school metalcore with it’s heavy thrashy low tuned down picked riffs and harmonised leads and licks. The tracks also features some nods to Slipknot some Beer Keg samples. The track really highlights on the concept of the infamous pandemic especially when it comes featuring lyrics about miss information and the oppressive side of the isolation.
As on the nose these lyrical themes are, when you put them in the context of their mix of old school meets new school metalcore it really creates a passionate outcome. The ballad Echo chamber brings in pop influences with it’s neo soul sounding reverbed chords, 808 sounding drum beats whilst flickers of padded synths fill the void before it fades into one of the most well constructed synth wave styled interlude tracks that I have heard this year.
The last two songs on the album bring this album to climatic closer with Second To None bringing in some old Lamb Of God style grooves with it’s 8th note triplet based riffs and Laid To Rest sounding lead guitar melodies but also bringing the new school metal elements with it’s ambient delayed guitar layers and soaring clean choruses. Speaking of atmosphere Gone To Waste carries on the delayed guitars and pushes them front and centre for the introduction before they are elevated to their final radio friendly choruses.
Defects debut release Modern Error really captures the new the ideas of the modern style of metal whilst still carrying the old school spirit. The lyrical themes contained on this album venture from your standard emotional heart break themed lyrics to topics that explore the events that took place during the great pandemic whist not feeling jarring at the same time.
Overall Modern Error brings Defects onto everyone radar with their tried and tested form of metalcore. 7/10
Red Handed Denial - A Journey Through Virtual Dystopia (Paid Vacation Records)
I've been on the Red Handed Denial train since I heard their 2019 album Redeemer. It was an experimental, progressive record that hinged on powerful metalcore, electronic elements and prog/djent technicality. With their next album I'd Rather Be Asleep they refined it, cutting down the amount of songs to streamline their approach. With that album they became a four piece and that is how they stay on this new record, A Journey Through Virtual Dystopia.
This Canadian band have again reshaped their sound, it's more complex but easier to access, heavier but with stronger melodies and with each album singer Lauren Babic gets better and better, though she started out pretty good to begin with. Lead single Parasite is the first of 10 tracks and the djenty stop start riffs begin in earnest, gothic synths filter in the back, the crushing riffs giving way to a anthemic clean chorus, Chris Mifsud's guitars shifting from down tuned palm muting to fluid arpeggios.
My Demise brings a bit of nu metal shredding and more massive riffs, the technical guitar playing over the virtuoso drumming from Tyson Dang while One More Night is deep in the synthwave/electronica sound, as is Falling Back To You which ups the emotion, Dominick De Kauwe's bass at the grooving heart, while he's also the major part of the trio that forms the middle of the record, industrial instrumental Driving Towards A Neon Sunset, heaving groover Smokescreen then the trip hop outro of and Then I Found Myself In A Virtual Dystopia.
Their latest album sees Red Handed Denial taking the most modern route they can with their music while continuing to get heavier. 8/10
Reversed - Wildly Possessed (Invictus Productions) [Gavin Brown]
Canadian Black/Death/Thrash metal monsters Reversed unleash their debut album Wildly Possessed and it sees the band show no mercy as they detonate seven powerful metal anthems with reckless abandon. Starting as they mean to go on with the title track of the album and from then on in, it’s a wild ride with Reversed cranking out high octane laden metal anthems for fun, and it does sound like it is fun they are having s they do so.
Reversed - Wildly Possessed (Invictus Productions) [Gavin Brown]
Canadian Black/Death/Thrash metal monsters Reversed unleash their debut album Wildly Possessed and it sees the band show no mercy as they detonate seven powerful metal anthems with reckless abandon. Starting as they mean to go on with the title track of the album and from then on in, it’s a wild ride with Reversed cranking out high octane laden metal anthems for fun, and it does sound like it is fun they are having s they do so.
Wildly Possessed is very much a full on blitzkrieg of a record with tracks like Maelstrom Juggernaut, Final Death and the closing blur of Black Sees defining this, the songs running amok as Reversed blast through them. On tracks like Rusted Breath or the haunting outro to Hungry Graves however, the band add a feeling of dread with a slower pace that is akin to Venom and Bathory's weighted slower and atmospheric parts and it adds and extra dimension of heaviness to the album, with the balance working out extremely well.
Reversed have got off to a flying start with this debut record and of Wildly Possessed is the start of things to come, then Reversed have a very bright future in metal indeed. 8/10
Ataraxia - Centaurea (The Circle Music) [James Jackson]
Ataraxia means a state of serene calmness, the band itself are a Neoclassical Darkwave act based in Italy that have been around since the mid 80’s, wracking up an impressive number of albums during those years, with their blend of modern technology and the use of more classical instruments.
Ataraxia - Centaurea (The Circle Music) [James Jackson]
Ataraxia means a state of serene calmness, the band itself are a Neoclassical Darkwave act based in Italy that have been around since the mid 80’s, wracking up an impressive number of albums during those years, with their blend of modern technology and the use of more classical instruments.
Comprising of three members, fronted by longstanding vocalist Francesca Nicoli, the band’s longevity where other more mainstream artists have long since faded away, can only suggest that they’re either really good at what they do or they are just unashamedly doing their own thing. The songs are well composed, they rise and fall throughout the album, each track utilising male and female vocals, soaring in English and the band’s native tongue (I presume); above a mixed medium of classical instrumentation.
The Darkwave characteristics are eminent in the rather sombre tone to each track, though solemn there’s also a feeling of light, of something rural and familiar, sunlight upon fields of golden wheat, it conjures every dreamy notion of summer in the countryside. I’m not trying to be poetic here, that’s just the images I see and isn’t that the point, that music can inspire a thought or a feeling.
So, did I like it?
Yes and No, there are those aforementioned elements, the soothing melodies and subsequent emotional responses; there’s also a rather irritating tone to some of the vocals which feels like they could shatter glass, something rather nasally at times which doesn’t quite match with the orchestration beneath it. An odd one this. 6/10
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