If there has been one trend as of late, and one I can't say I mind, it's the list of ever growing bands that draw from the "melodic hardcore" or Shai Hulud-esque influences. I personally grew up listening to bands like Beloved, Strongarm and Life in Your Way, both pioneers of the genre, and then later on grew to love bands like With Honor, and yes, Shai Hulud.
Though many bands try to imitate Shai Hulud's sound, they always seem to come close, but lack something, and it's usually the same thing; the technicality.
Saints Never Surrender's latest effort, Brutus is their third release, and second full length. This time aronud, they come out of the gate with the noticeable improvement of recording quality. The entire record is excellently pu ttogether. The guitar tones are both crisp and firm, the drums are precise, and though the records biggest flaw, the vocals, seem to detract, their recording is done nicely.
Brutus begins with a guitar tapping intro, extremely melodic, slow, and atmospheric, but this is the only time we see the band slow down. The album is extremely fast paced, and doesn't slow down. Mixing hardcore drumming with some very intricate arrangements as far as technicality goes. Songs are comprised of tons of short parts that rarely repeat, and transition so fast, it's even hard for me to keep up.
Where the music is strong, the vocals tend to lack. I'm personally not fan of the singers voice, but it does its job. However, some of the rythms don't follow the technicality of the music. They tend to jump around quite oftenm leaving the listener scratching their head.
while it's easy to get lost in the vocals, it's imparative that the listener pays attention to the music, as this is the records strongest suit, and what makes this an incredible record.
FINAL GRADE: A-
No comments:
Post a Comment