BetrayedA few months back Betrayed released a split with Champion (which I did a review for, check it out) which really caught my attention, and garnered love around the hardcore scene, so I was pretty fucking hype when I heard they'd be releasing a full length on Equal Vision. I think it's fair to say that this album had a substantial amount of buzz prior to it's release.
Usually, that spells disaster for most releases, because no matter how good an album is, there is always a fault to be found, and the more hyped the album the more it gets magnified., not always fair, but that's what happens when your name reaches a certain point. Well, the first few times I listened to this album I thought it was alright, but I was expecting more because of how great their three songs on their EP were. It's a good thing I held off giving it a review right off the bat because I decided to give it another chance and tried to look at it for what is, a straight up hardcore album, hype or no hype.
I'm just a big sucker for melodic hardcore when it's done right, and boy do these guys do it right. As I had previously mentioned in the EP review I wrote, Aram's voice is perfect for this brand of hardcore, the urgency and desperation in his voice sounds perfect juxtaposed against the simple head nodding hardcore rhythms with just the right amount of melody. There are some parts where the band decides to slow things up a bit, but for the most part it's left to the final two tracks but there are some brief moments in the entire album where there's some slower. At first I thought it caused the album to drag but after giving it more spins it was nice to hear those kinds of parts to break of the monotony of the basic hardcore chord progressions.
Lyrically, I'm loving this album. Yeah, it's nothing new, and the same shit is being said now that was said 20 years ago, trying to let people know there's a different path in life, sticking by hardcore, straight edge, etc., but it's from Aram's perspective and the way he's able to get them across to the listener is up there with the best of them. The words in every song have continuity, it's more like a short speech than random lines strung together. It's nice to see them dedicate the song "The City Lights" to Brandie Bailey (sister of Bailey from Figure Four/Endless Fight) who sadly had her life cut short when she was struck by a sanitation truck on her way home from work. Another song I especially liked was the track, "Crossroads", which is about how people feel that they have to give up straight edge as they get older but the great thing about this track is that it can be interpreted in many ways; giving up hardcore because of age, losing friends because of difference of opinions, it's up to you to make your own connection. The same can be said about most of the tracks on the album.
You just can't go wrong with putting Kurt Ballou behind the board. The first thing I always notice in his recordings is the bass tone, and how he lets the bass tone round out the sound rather than putting an inordinate amount of distortion on the guitar, which so many producers do. He knows what tone sounds good in what circumstance, and for the most part it's always on point. The guitar tone works great for this record, at first it sounded a little too dry, but from a clarity and live perspective it makes more sense. The more I listened to it the better it sounded. I liked the use of feedback in certain parts of the album. The vocals sound great, as do the drums. No complaints here.
The layout is very plain and uniform, and makes use of a black and white layout printed on matte stock paper. The cover is just a photo of the band with a nice ocean backdrop. I like the inside of booklet, each page has the lyrics to two songs (keeping things even and uniform, just like the black and white layout), and are printed with ample room with its double spacing. On the adjacent page, there is a nice picture of each band member centered to make it look it's framed. And then in the middle of booklet there is a nice two page shot of the band, which I've seen a lot of lately, standing in front of the ocean. On one side I like that it's nothing fancy because it ties into the theme of the record, but then there is the other side of me that wishes they would've done a little more with the layout.
Rating: 4/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: Understand (this song features one of the best gang vocal lines I've heard, "Still growing up, still fucking up, still lost and desperate for answers.", if I go straight edge this song will be the cause), Bring It To Life, The City Lights
Thesis: Hopefully, people won't skimp on picking this up because of all the hype. I almost fucked up and passed this off because of it. Listen to it, and listen to it over and over again because this one has loads of replay value, definitely not one of those CD's you'll listen to once and never again, just give it a chance.