Time Signature Hard branch to snap...

Genre: metalcore

This Or The Apocalypse's latest album Dead Years is promoted like this: "No cookie cutter choruses. No repetitive breakdowns featuring the same riffs as a 1,000 other bands. No frills, no gimmicks, no unnecessarily complicated haircuts." Now this really seems promising, and the way that it these words essentially criticizes all the things that I tend to find ridiculous about metalcore.

The reality is that, for a metalcore release promoted as being free of metalcore kliches, this album is disappoiningly full of metalcore kliches. There are breakdowns upon breakdowns, and This Or The Apocalypse also make use of the typical screamed harsh vocals combined with melodic clean choruses plus loads of othe rkliches. In that department, this album sounds pretty generic to my ears. This being said, I still think that the approach to metalcore presented on this album is relatively creative in other departments compared to the grey mass of tattooed, eyeliner-smattered, emo hairdo-sporting, massively face-peaced and generally obnoxious metalcore bands out there thanks to the level of musicianship possessed by This Or The Apocalypse, whose leven of technicality does make the album worth listening to. Still, it was when I listened to this album that I realized that I am actually getting tired of generic metalcore. There are a couple of original acts out there whom I enjoy immensely, but it does seem that the genre is on its way to eating itself up from the inside. A shame, but perhaps, This Or The Apocalypse will be one of those bands who keep the genre alive, if they play their cards right and utilize the musicianship that they display on this album, whose biggest attraction points are the use of melodic guitar leads and and grooves and riffs, some of which are near-awsome.

So, this album is indeed one of the better metalcore releases out there, but it is still loaded with generic metalcore elements and it does not, I would say, live up to its 'no frills, no gimmicks' promise. I am sure that dedicated metalcore fans will love this album, but personally, it just does not rock my world at all.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)