This Or The ApocalypseFrom the land of the first paved road in America, the Philadelphia-Lancaster Turnpike (thanks PA History!)and August Burns Red comes Lancaster's This Or The Apocalypse. Though these guys are a newer band they already have two previous releases under their belt. They play a metalcore style that is similar to Misery Signals, Shai Hulud, and Life In Your Way with some odd time breakdowns and staccato riffs that bring to mind Meshuggah and A Life Once Lost's "A Great Artist" and of course they draw from the heroes of their hometown, August Burns Red as well.
After reading the opening paragraph you already know if you will enjoy this album or hate it. Personally, I am not huge into Misery Signals like some folks but I do enjoy some of their catalog now and then. I can see why people would call these guys a clone of Misery Signals because they are definitely a lot of parallels to be drawn; they have the odd-time signatures, they have melodies laid on top of off-timed rhythm parts, and breakdowns.
Even though the first minute plus of "Two Wars" sounds almost identical to something off of ALOL's "A Great Artist," china worship and all, they do an excellent job of jumping back into their Misery Signals style, until later on they re-enter the opening off-timed breakdown, this time with a melodic lead over top. They again revisit their melodic side with the ending of the song which has a soaring melody with catchy, memorable riffing that goes on until the song slowly fades out.
The formula of above is often repeated throughout the album. They do manage to change it up enough to keep things interesting, however. For instance the following song, "We Are Debt" they thrown in a pretty cool deathcore-ish part at 1:05 until hitting on another Meshuggah/ALOL moment and then they hit on of those catchy melodic parts again.
Call me an opinionated, and somewhat of an asshole but the first time I listened to this CD I was just waiting for some horrible clean vocals but to my surprise there were none. And this is the type of music that could easily incorporate it and the girls would go ga-ga over it and get them signed to Atlantic Records, so for that I give these guys props. Even though the vocals aren't the greatest, I appreciate them a lot more without the emo/screamo shit being thrown in for the sake of "changing it up."
These guys are definitely Christian, that much I am sure of and lyrically their faith creeps in, sometimes its intentional and other times it may be unconscious but either way the lyrics are made ambiguous enough. Which is good because the last thing I need is a metalcore band preaching to me about religion, or any band for that matter.
Snazzy layout by Carson Slovak. The man is definitely a very gifted graphic designer and knows his way around photoshop. The way he manipulated various monuments such as the statue of liberty, the ancient pyramids of Egypt, the Eiffel tower, the coliseum throughout the layout were interesting to stare at. I especially liked how he used the Eiffel tower as an electric tower.
Rating: 3.7/5
Songs Worthy of Replay: "Two Wars," "We Are Debt" & "Mauna Kea"
Synopsis: An above average release, regardless of its genre and the stigmas attached to it. These guys are certainly talented musicians with a lot of untapped potential I am sure. I expect these guys to reach another level on their follow up album, I just hope they can separate their faith from their music because whehter or not bands like to acknowledge that, you can alienate a lot of fans with unwarranted preaching.
As I always say, check out the band and decide for yourself. I am but one individual with his own tastes and preferences that are probably much different than yours. With that said, check out these links:
This Or The Apocalypse MySpace
Lifeforce Records
"Two Wars"