Manchester thrash/groove act Beyond Salvation deliver The Final Nail with their debut album.
If you're a fan of Machine Head, Sylosis, Trivium or Hatebreed then you'll be banging your head the instance Descending Into Darkness gets going with the technically impressive, bludgeoning modern thrash metal, inspired by the sounds of the US mid-2000's scene.
With three EP's under their belts, The Final Nail is their debut full length and it's a real bruiser of a debut, the blistering Incarcerate, exactly the sort of track that will go down a storm live, speed, precision and power that will get pits moving for sure, while the Title Track has a stomping groove to it that shifts to atmospheric realms.
Their skill should not be a surprise as Jon Pedley (vocals/rhythm), Arun Kamath (lead), Luke Entwistle (bass), and Owen Ashworth (drums), have been moulding their technical thrash/death/groove hybrid for a few years now, a very D.I.Y unit all the band members has a had in producing the album, which sounds meaty and aggressive from the first seconds, but its also slick and polished as Lee Calpee handles the mastering.
Gaining new followers and thrashers with each show, be it Bloodstock or supporting Shrapnel and Krysthla, they have been taking the UK by storm and have translated a lot of this live ferocity into their debut, as rapid pace riffs on tracks such as the melodeath-like Cleansing or the hardcore punch of Scorned, soon switch gear into neck wrecking breakdowns on Broken Reflections, the drumming always intense, the riffs burly and the solos a widdly as you want.
While not a concept album there is a loose theme to the album charting "an individual’s journey of self-reflection" which leads to some emotionally driven vocal shouts the choice to leave off the clean vocals that so many bands bring now, a positive move as it would dilute the power of the record in my opinion.
Beyond Salvation's album may be called The Final Nail but its just the beginning of the story for this impressive UK metal outfit. 8/10
Seven Crowns - Haunted Head (Pale Wizard Records)
20 years ago a punk band from Bath played their first ever show in New York City in support of Subhumans. Since then they have circumnavigated the globe with some of hardcore punks best and loudest, but rarely set foot on a stage in their native country, perhaps because the music scene in Europe and South America still has that D.I.Y ethos, and punk as genre is all about rebellion, so will be much better appreciated inside a Venezuelan toilet venue than any Live Nation branded enormo-dome.
Haunted Head is their fourth album and it comes from a place of immense sadness, born out a time where many of the bands loved ones passed away, they recorded the album with Josh Gallop in Stage 2 Studios in Bath, returning home to convalesce in the loudest way they can to create a way to work through their grief with some music they call “heavy as fuck psychedelic punk” now that seems a weird description but it is very accurate to what Seven Crowns deliver here.
The industrial synthesisers bubbling up at the beginning of the title track, the sludgy, heavy groove riffs, dragging their self to life, as the raw throated screams come it to exorcise those demons and celebrate their lost loved ones. Seven Crowns also celebrate musical diversity; their music is inventive using instrumentation that is a lot more expressive and interesting than many hardcore punk acts. Latin rhythms come on the drums and bass via NWOBHM gallops on Headstone, Side Effects goes from a shouty bounce into bass-driven industrial weirdness and angular guitars.
Ways To Be Gone and Acts Of Mindless are more like it if you’re a hardcore punk fan, as both have got that drive that will bring the spin kicks. However, Ways To Be Gone goes all desert rock in the middle to keep you guessing, Seven Crowns end this chapter with Some Are Broken, Some Are Lost as song that turns everything before around, a cathartic pseudo-ballad, it’s this punk collective releasing these feelings of grief for the final time. Haunted Head is not just a punk album, it’s a punk album from a band, who lay their hat abroad, coming home to celebrate family with music that never feels restrictive or reductive.
Seven Crowns’ fourth album and their collaboration with Pale Wizard Records, may just introduce a new listeners to punk music that can be, antagonistic and uncompromising while also being inventive and emotional. 9/10
Dark Divine - Undead Melody (Thriller Records)
There's been an upsurge in bands recently blending goth aesthetics, horror movie clichés and industrial driven metalcore. Brutal music, big breakdowns, fizzing electronics and a cinematic style that is obsessed with slashers and the undead.
Motionless In White, Ice Nine Kills and Mister Misery are all a part of this "spooky core" scene and now coming out of a Halloween Horror Night at Universal Studios it's Orlando band Dark Divine. They've recently been across the UK with Smash It To Pieces and it's on stage where they really show what they can do through an immersive live experience that is sure to please their fanghouls and fanghosts.
How does it translate to album though? Well on Undead Melody they don't have their visual elements so they're reliant on their music alone, which is good, I mean it's not groundbreaking but there's a much broader sound than you may expect from the emotional angst and processed beats of the title track to the brutality and breakdowns of Midnight Masquerade.
It's an album that draws from metalcore, post-hardcore and nu metal to create a hybrid sound that is very on trend right now. Undead Melody invites you to enter Dark Divine's Black Magic Kingdom. 7/10
On Borrowed Time - In The Dark Before The Dawn (Omen Records)
Melodic hardcore from Dorset now, as On Borrowed Time deliver their debut album In The Dark Before The Dawn, through Omen Records. Formed in 2018 they've been refining a style of melodic hardcore that is emotional and aggressive, richly layered in clean guitar lines, anything post-haedcore choruses and a gritty mix of hardcore and punk.
On Borrowed Time are a band where all of the members are veterans of their scene having played in various bands before merging their talents here. It's this experience and understanding of their sound that means that this debut album arrives with a band instantly showing you who the band are.
Preceded by several singles (all about them streams baby), In The Dark Before The Dawn begins with Twilight an instrumental intro that sets the tone for the whole album, it feels anthemic and insistent, from the snap of the snare, to the distorted riffs merging with melodic leads, it's a build into Burden which explodes like a track firmly plucked from the 90's skate scene, punk rock speed which breaks down into shoving aggression.
They've been compared to Have Heart and Comeback Kid, these comparisons are hard to disagree with. For every punchy riff and shouty verse there's an ambient moment and an introspective chorus that's designed to be shouted back, the raw emotion distilled and put friendly breakdowns distilled with complexity in the compositions.
If like and me and I assume them you were fed a diet of Kerrang/Scuzz TV and Tony Hawks Pro Skater growing up, then there will be a sense of nostalgia to this record but let me be clear, the style is reminiscent on In The Dark Before The Dawn but On Borrowed Time make sure their debut is contemporary and cathartic. 7/10
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