The last time we heard from this German metalcore outfit they were called just ‘Destiny’ and released the excellent The Tracy Chapter. Now with a legally changed name and a new label, the band’s mid era Poison The Well worship and strong sense of songwriting is still intact.

Not as grating as fellow Germans Heaven Shall Burn or Maroon, but far more creative than Caliban, The Destiny Program, while plying the much maligned metalcore genre, manage to make infectious, catchy songs that brings to mind Tear From the Red and You Come Before You, but with their own sense of character.

Armed with an all cast of Engineers Anders Friden (In Flames) and Daniel Bergstrand (Meshuggah, SYL), a Jacob Hansen (Heaven Shall Burn, Maroon) production and Tue Madsen mix job the album sounds fantastic, but I imagine it still won’t appeal to most metal heads as the heavy injections mix of uplifting chunky riffs, lithe experimentation and soaring clean vocals will likely put off most but the most ardent metalcore fans.

Still though, for what it is, The Subversive Blueprint is an above average offering of German rocky metalcore. The tracks are positive and political with Johannes Formella doing his best Jeffrey Moriera impression with his deep but understandable roar and clean croons while the riffs chug and stomp with catchy yet hefty prose that’s understatedly layered and melodic. It;s never too noodly, but retains a dramatic sense of harmony and emotion that’s a little deeper than the standard Metal Blade/As I Lay Dying styled metalcore. Tracks like opener “The Personal Revolution”, crumbling “Daeva”, uplifting chorus of “Escape the Living Plan” and “Rebel Press” and evocative closer “Mithra”, while certainly not the heaviest metalcore around, kept me coming back and deliver stirring personal anthems, but admittedly none quite reach the level of The Tracy Chapter’s “Forsaken Love” (still one of my favorite metalcore songs ever). However, it does come across as far more intellectual and meaningful than a lot of the commercial metalcore out there today.

The mild experimentation you may have read about is minimal and is by way of a little electronic programming here and there, interlude “Walk in Step with the March” and programmed (and hypnotic) ballad “Neurosis and Projection” but its never a full on leap into experimentation or stylistic shifts a la Poison The Well’s Versions, resulting in a strong if pretty niche album that metalcore fans looking for something just a tad out of the ordinary should look into.

[Visit the band's website]

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