I know the same can be said about every genre and subgenre of metal (and for all of music, for that matter), but why does every single goddamned metalcore band have the exact same singer with the exact same voice who sings in the exact same patterns and enunciates the words the exact same way?

With metalcore, one of the most annoying subgenres in all of metal, every word is shouted at the top of the vocalist’s lungs, most sentences are broken up with singular word shouts, and the voice tends to always become lost/too hoarse by the end of each sentence. Also, the guitarists follow the exact same riff instruction manual and all go for the dramatic breakdown at the exact same time as everybody else.

Why? Don’t any of these bands ever want to buck the trend and be, I don’t know, different?

Usually the music from these bands is actually somewhat decent if not entirely original. There are plenty of talented guitarists and drummers in the bloated metalcore scene; some of these kids actually know how to fire off some deadly combos. But like a sizeable chunk of the thrash scene in the ‘80s, the music is murdered by the vocalists.

Unfortunately for Canada’s  Orchid’s Curse, they fall into the same lethal trap as the trillion or so bands of this ilk that have come before them. Though the kids will likely go bananas over this one, Words is nothing that has already been done to death. Their second full length release,  Orchid’s Curse do nothing to alter the image of metalcore that was popularized by the likes of A Bullet for My Valentine, As I Lay Dying, Lamb of God, All the Remains, et al. On the plus side,  Orchid’s Curse follows the metalcore blueprint to the T and has stayed within the lines perfectly, so at least they are good students.

There’s really not much to add to this review because there’s really no point in describing the songs other than this: it’s typical metalcore. Obviously the same criticism could be and should be thrown at every single cookie cutter death metal band and all the cheesy “kvlt” black metal acts, but at least those bands try to replicate good bands. Bands like Orchid’s Curse and their legion of brethren all try to copy A Bullet for My Valentine, As I Lay Dying, Lamb of God, All that Remains, et al. That’s a terrible starting point.

[Visit the band's website]

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