STICK TO YOUR GUNS — Diamond (review)

STICK TO YOUR GUNS — Diamond album cover Album · 2012 · Metalcore Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
Time Signature
Against them all...

Genre: metal(hard)core

I hope I will be forgiven for, having glanced the the cover art before listening to the music itself, mistakenly expecting this album to be an all out dirty hardcore crust punk onslaught and not the polished-but-aggressive metalcore songs that Diamond actually contains.

In all fairness, Stick To Your Guns strike me as being among the more potent metalcore-bands, and their style definitely belongs to the more hardcore-oriented end of the metalcore, featuring riot-vocals and a lot of steret attitude, which is especially prevalent in 'Empty Heads' and 'Life in a Box' as well as 'Bringing You Down'. However, Stick To Your Guns also feature several elements from the more melodic type of metalcore, such as clean vocals and even some almost poppy ooh-ooh-whoah-aahs in a tracks like 'Against Them All' , 'We Still Believe', and 'Bringing You Down'. Stick To Your Guns do not overdo this, however, and I think it works pretty well most of the time. The obligatory metalcore breakdowns are also there, and, again, unlike many other metalcore artists – especially deathcore ones – Stick To Your Guns do not overdo things, and many of the breakdowns are groovy have a very moshing-friendly quality to them. In addition to the many hardcore elements, Stick To You Gun also make use of thrash metal aesthetics every now and then, giving some of the tracks an almost crossover feel to them.

The production is, as mentioned, quite polished, but it does not hinder the aggression and heaviness in the music itself, and, actually, the album has an overall quite metallic ring to it. Also, this of course allows one to hear what is actually going on and to enjoy the rhythmic details that the band use to make their breakdowns sound interesting.

Diamond is a quite good metalcore album, and I especially like how Stick To Your Guns remind us, by retaining a lot of hardcore elements, that metalcore did, after all, develop from hardcore. My personal preferences are the more hardcore-oriented tracks like 'Empty Heads' and 'Life in a Box' as well as 'Bringing You Down' and 'Build Upon the Sand', but this is definitely an album I can easily listen to in its entirety. Fans of modern hardcore and more edgy metalcore should definitely check it out.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Star Melodic Black Metal
WORMWOOD
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sounds of The Forgotten Progressive Metal
WITHERFALL
Buy this album from MMA partners
Preaching Our Doomsday Coming Doom Metal
DOOM MONGER
Buy this album from MMA partners
Transcend Metalcore
CRAZY GRIZZLY
Buy this album from MMA partners
Eden Tough Technical Death Metal
ASEITAS
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

CRAZY GRIZZLY - PARALLAX Feat RIKO AGUS [Official Music Video]
CRAZY GRIZZLY
Bosh66· 13 hours ago
CRAZY GRIZZLY - ASPERSION Feat BEARFOURS [Official Music Video]
CRAZY GRIZZLY
Bosh66· 13 hours ago
CRAZY GRIZZLY - TERRA LUNA [Official Music Video]
CRAZY GRIZZLY
Bosh66· 13 hours ago
CRAZY GRIZZLY I DEATH STRANDNG I OFFICIAL LYRICS VIDEO
CRAZY GRIZZLY
Bosh66· 13 hours ago
CRAZY GRIZZLY - THE SADDLE OF HORSES (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
CRAZY GRIZZLY
Bosh66· 13 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed