I know many readers will roll their eyes at a release such as this, but this is for the few folks that enjoy the styling of After the Burial, Painted In Exile (new album hurry up and get here already!), Fallujah, Viljharta,  Born of Osiris, Aegaeon, 7 Horns 7 Eyes,  Within the Ruins and other synth heavy, modern ‘core’ or ‘djent’ bands.

Truth be told, not much djent/core has impressed me in the last few years, or straight up deathcore for that matter, but along with After the Burial‘s Dig Deeper,  Fallujah’s Dreamless and Textures’ Phenotype and this 5 song EP, I’m getting a bit more enthusiasm back. Granted, this is a lot heavier that much of the stuff on Tragic Hero records like Alesana and A Skylit Drive, has no pop,  techno or dance elements, and the (minimally used) dreaded clean croons are not being utterly whiny or completely annoying me.

Due the presence of two 8 string guitars, the whole affair is waaaaaay heavier then anything in the genre like say Struc/tures, Volumes or Monuments or Textures,  even with the commercial clean vocals (along with expected deathcore growls and screams). And then add some very well done not cheesy or piecemeal orchestral synths that add a little classical flair to the music, and I’m really enjoying this whole EP.

The pace of almost all the EPs tracks is a that heavy, slow, drawn out, stuttering lurch and chug. It’s not quite full on down tempo and a few more deathcore-ish blasts pop up here and there, and the synths keep things a little more atmospheric and dare I say, less purely brutish. First single “Miserae” is a pretty good indicator of the whole EP, and “Thirst for War” even has some nice almost chamber music strings to start and end the speaker shattering, devastating rumble that the song delivers.

Granted, the formula is pretty much identical with a almost continual shred or dreamy solo overlaying the huge lopes (much like Fallujah), and almost impossible to determine between the 4 actual tracks, but boy is it ever heavy and well done. And those little string/synth breaks do just enough to keep things very interesting ( i.e 36 seconds and 2:41 into “Famine”), almost intellectual and a cut above the knuckle dragging heft. “Extinguish the Stars” ends the EP with a 6 minute number and a gorgeous sweep arpeggio and piano work that simply a cut above almost everything else in the genre right now.

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