After boldy claiming their Victory Records debut Goodbye to the Gallows was the ‘most brutal CD of 2007′, Emmure return with their more humble, yet equally devastating follow up.
And while admittedly, most metal heads will turn up their nose at this group of cocked hat, short haired kids and their hoodies, but truth be told Emmure are in fact one of the heaviest bands around in terms of sheer heft. Forsaking the usual death core mantra of squeal and chug, Emmure instead go for a simple chug then a ridiculous uber chug sound that’s more in line with Whitechapel, The Acacia Strain and newer Ion Dissonance as far as loping, heaving heft rather than forced blast beats, ATG worship and faux death metal broodle-ness needless chaos (I’m looking at you Annotations of An Autopsy, Carnifex, Bring Me The Horizon, Arsonists Get All the Girls and Suicide Silence).
Yeah it’s kids, yeah it’s got Kurt Angle on the cover, yeah it’s got screamed and growled vocals, yeah it’s got silly song titles and yeah it’s pretty much one 29 minute breakdown, but holy fuck it’s heavy; Neck snappin’, shoulder slammin’, head bobbin’, sick groove heavy. To their credit, vocalist Frank Palmeri band has also virtually dropped his more snivelling emo segues (No grating “Won’t you be my bride?” here, and only “False Love In Real Life” and “Chicago’s Finest” and “Tales From the Burg” utilize them briefly) and there’s actually some shards of elegance amid the crumbling resonance such as “Chicago’s Finest” and “Dry Ice”, which are far more effective than the prior albums “Travis Bickle” and never seem forced. The Zeuss production, as with Gallows, is fucking HUGE, teeth rattlingly so, making tracks like intro “Young, Rich and Out of Control”, “Sound Wave Superior”, “Snuff 2: The Resurrection” will beat your speakers into submission and there’s even a decent melodic metalcore canter that starts “Rough Justice”.
Still, this isn’t an album old death metal heads will be gushing over, over but for those, like me, that are open to kids playing breakdowns, Emmure is about as heavy as it gets in the genre.
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I still find it funny that they are from CT and not allowed to play here because they are that hated. I’m sorry for bring bad words for a band I have no personal experiences with but I’ve just heard basically they got signed to Victory and thought they were better than everyone else after that. Either way this has mediocre written all over it.
on Jun 6th, 2008 at 14:50I reviewed their last album, and listened to this one with an open mind, hoping they improved.
With all due respect, Erik, this album, and band, is absolute garbage.
on Jun 7th, 2008 at 15:25when you think about Emmure is basically the new On Broken Wings. but this disc um its a grower. oh and steve p there not all from CT bro read there bio before jumping to conclusions.
on Jun 8th, 2008 at 15:08