For Torch and Crown

Something tends to get lost in the fine art of thrash metal in the transition from the classic era to what can be best described as modernity. The latter term may seem a blatant misnomer when applied to a period of time that falls entirely within the modern era, but it does hold some weight as an analogy to the dead, empty, and often confuted character of modern philosophy. Much of the organic, flesh-bound beauty that made the likes of Exhorder, Testament and a few other players that had a direct role in influencing the thrashing side of modern metalcore have been lost in its bastard child, resulting in a confounded mishmash of conflicting ideas. Surprisingly enough, this sense of mixed up aspects finds a welcome home in present hipster circles where both catchiness and complexity are subjugated to the whim of fashionable practices.

America is a welcoming home for this sort of trite at present, but similar adherents to this trend can be found all over the civilized world, including the birthplace of Teutonic thrash, as the existence of bands like Drone point to emphatically. In some respects, this group of Machine Head meets Killswitch Engage wannabes manage to transcend the drastic limitations with appeals to the dark, progressive riffing style of recent Nevermore offerings (think “Enemies Of Reality” and “This Godless Endeavor”). They’ve also avoided the gimpy vocal character of more boyish adherents to the style, though the grunge infused, headache inducing glory that is Robb Flynn is all over both the clean and dirty vocal parts from start to finish. Sometimes they even go so far as to pull off a fairly decent song, but ultimately in much the same way as a trained flea, they never jump much higher than the usual bland mixture of early At The Gates melodies mixed with a semi-thrash drive that barely manages to break a sweat.

To break it down to its most basic terms, what is contained within this 40 minute feat of mediocrity is 10 songs which struggle to sound different from one another with all their might and fail gloriously in the process. Apart from an elongated intro that reminds a bit of Metallica’s “Blackened” and a few pretty standard blast beats, there is little to separate “Format C” (one of the better songs on here) from the rest of the pack, and as an opening song it doesn’t really hit the listener with enough force to really compel much interest in what lay beyond. “Croak In Your Waste” also manages to make itself a bit more distinct by dwelling a bit more on the dark, thudding influences taken from Nevermore and latter day Machine Head, but even it can’t avoid falling into the usual batch of bad metalcore clichés during the comical chorus line. That’s really where just about every decent song falters on here, during those annoying semi-clean sung choruses with those same stale hooks that In Flames has been recycling for a decade now.

There isn’t really a whole lot to bother with here, which is pretty sad considering that this band managed to win a Wacken Metal Battle (the melancholy sentiments being directed at the Wacken contest). There isn’t really much here that can’t be found on the latest God Forbid album, and it lacks some of the subtle charms of said band and doesn’t put enough emphasis on the best thing that it has going for it, namely the groove influences. This isn’t quite something that can be qualified as terrible, though the banality factor is strong enough that it can’t help but purge itself from memory soon after the songs have ceased.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on August 26, 2012.