This is yet another album that I’ve hung on to for far too long for a review. It’s been an absolute pleasure to listen to as I’m on a bit of a hardcore binge with Hatebreed, Negative Measures, Municipal Waste/Iron Reagan, Stray From The Path and a lot more. This is obviously a very varied range of stuff all within a similar bracket though Hometruths are truly at home and slots into the best of this.
Earlier in the week, Mosh put up a short post on their newest single “Feral” from the debut EP Open Your Eyes. He picked up on the upbeat combination of old-style catchy rock’n’roll riffs with a heavier metalcore sound, adding to this I would like to say that it’s a brilliant introduction to the band and the album, showcasing their er… feral nature with tempo changes and their grinding, sludgy tendencies. Honestly, it’s the one I would put forward as a single also.
What really stands out about this record is the attention to detail, the drumming is texture-full with ditty snare brushes and the like that highlight the harsher, more abrasive edges of the album. Rather than just being balls-to-the-wall, it’s already set itself apart from a lot of hardcore. Nevertheless it does hark back to its roots, especially on “Divide” with a much thrashier vibe. At the more rhythmic points, it even feels vaguely reminiscent of Slipknot’s “I Am Hated”.
The slower “Vigilante” almost feels in it’s nature to be a hardcore ballad which the guitar’s funky-bass tone adds a lot too. It’s a very incomparable tone and quite frankly I dig it, same goes for “WMD”.
The single standout point of the album has got to be “Genocide” though, which more or less sums up the whole album, armed with a killer chorus and a beautifully inserted “BLEGH” which gets me every goddamn time. When I put the album on for the first time, this was the track I played over and over before going through the album again. If you haven’t heard it already, you can check it out below.
Overall, clocking in at sixteen minutes, it is very much music of the zeitgeist with its riotous theme as relevant as ever whilst the metalcore influence gives it a very palatable feel on the forefront of the evolution of heavy music. Building on this, it’s not even hard music to get into; it’s crunchy, groovy, and sonically infectious that anyone who enjoys anything from Rage Against The Machine to Architects can easily latch onto.
Perhaps it’s because they’re a relatively unknown band or the fact that the music hasn’t been released yet but I feel a strong sense of ownership and identification with this album, certainly it will be one that I’ll have to pick up when it comes out. With its recent support from Metal Hammer and Kerrang I reckon they’re going to blow up at some point in the very near future. So, to paraphrase a cracking album, keep your eyes peeled.
Open Your Eyes is out on the 3rd of March via CI Records
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