Labels: Equal Vision
Review by: Kunal Nandi
I wonder if reviewing this in about two months’ time would be wiser, because this is one of those records I love hard after first clapping my ears on it, and now that I’ve played it pretty much constantly the past couple of months, it is beginning to pale.
The style is not one I usually go for – that alternating screamed/sung stuff over a hardcore backing. This time round though, the screaming bits are driven, exhilarating, cathartic passages, and the sung melodies are genuinely catchy and beautifully done. You could say that it’s possible that each song goes on too long, with them all ending with epic finales as if they were at the end of the album. I say that now, but then up starts the wonderful chiming riff of “Against The Tide”, by far the longest song on the record at over six minutes, and it could go on forever without me minding. The music is inventive, with rock-solid rhythms and a guitar that is at once twiddly and interesting, before crashing in with massive brawny power-chords (listen to “Dissolve” if you don’t believe me fool!).
Fuck it – I love this now, I’ll love this ten years from now. More singing in hardcore!
PS – Time In Malta cover a Chavez B-side on this album.
PPS – I love Chavez.