In The Face Of WarI can probably go out on a limb here and say this is the best band to ever come out of Kokomo, Indiana but I have been wrong in the past. They are a passionate melodic hardcore band that features 6 members which include 3 guitarist. Why they could possibly need 3 guitarist is beyond me. They say Vegan on their myspace which I don't understand because they have a picture inside the booklet of one of the members eating Taco Bell, and even if it is devoid of meat, it is still absolutely the furthest thing from Veganism. Well, either way they have released a demo, split with The Bowels of Judas, a full length titled "Live Forever or Die Trying", and another album titled "Self Reliance is Self Destruction".
Even though it seems like the whole melodic hardcore thing has seen a huge resurgence as of late, these guys play the style well. At moments they reminded me of a stripped down version of Passion, especially the vocals at times. They keep things fast to mid paced for the most part with a lot of melodic undercurrents throughout. It's definitely nothing innovative but like I said these guys do it pretty damn good. The 11 songs usually stick around the 1:45-2:30 mark, it gives you enough time to get into the songs without getting bored too fast because lets face it, things can get boring fast with this style of hardcore without the proper song writing and energy.
I enjoyed the recording on this one. It had enough polish without taking away from the bands energy and intensity. The guitars sound good, although I couldn't even tell there were three of them. The bass had a fair amount of presence with a treble rich tone. The drums sounded solid. The vocals were mixed in very nicely.
Really slick DIY inspired layout that was not only crafted ingeniously designed to show all the materials needed to design to actual layout of the album. It shows the stencils, the markers, paint, etc., that was used to make it. This one has a really thick booklet that has tons of photos of the band in live settings and just fucking around on the road. Each song has it's own page for the lyrics. Considering this is the labels first release, they went all out with this one.
Rating: 3.8/5
Sections Worthy of Replay: Who Will Be There And Revival
Synopsis: I couldn't even tell these guys had three guitarists until reading their bio but I guess in their area it's hard to find a good hardcore band so they have to squeeze them all into one band. Next time around they should utilize having three of them rather than having three guitars playing the same thing for the most part. If you're into the whole melodic hardcore scene I would suggest checking them out though, it's actually quite good and the packaging is top notch for a new label.