To Speak Of Wolves

Find Your Worth, Come Home

Written by: PP on 10/11/2012 17:25:54

To speak of improvement over their last record. "Myself < Letting Go", while decent, was plagued by metalcore clichés and as such failed to create much buzz within the scene. "Find Your Worth, Come Home", the sophomore album by To Speak Of Wolves that features Spencer Chamberlain (UnderOATH)'s brother Phillip on drums, is an entirely different beast. It's a record where the band align themselves ever more closely to Norma Jean's chaotic mathcore stance during their "Redeemer"-era, while also integrating obvious influences from Phillip's brothers band UnderOATH, most notably in the clean vocal department.

Basically, you can expect intricate mathcore riffs spliced with a southern fried metalcore approach, all giving way to a chaotically screamed environment where melancholic clean vocals are the only break from Botch-inspired breakdowns and convoluted mathcore guitars. The texture of the album is one of chaos and unpredictability, which has been tied together sensibly into arrangements that, while brutal and in-your-face in their nature, carry plenty of easily recognizable elements and passages that make for a hell of an intense listening experience. In fact, the album is in many places near-identical to "Redeemer" in its sound, but since that record was collectively nominated as the best album of 2006 by the RF.net staff, I don' t see any reason to complain. In practice, it means that the record's urgency and immediacy is at a top notch level, but also allows for more mellow and melancholic passages to feature as contrasting elements. For instance, "Oregon" features a slower instrumental approach, which allows for atmosphere and soundscape building and expanding instead of the tear-it-all-down approach we see on many other tracks.

Both styles work just as well, and if nothing else, the latter offers some variety that ensures "Find Your Worth, Come Home" isn't a monotonous listen. There's plenty of discordance and dissonance for the hardcore/metalcore crowd, but not at the expense of melody so to say. It's an impressive listen overall, and leaps and bounds better than their debut album. If you're into chaotic mathcore/metalcore of the older kind (pre-Rise Records type of stuff), be sure to check this out.

8

Download: Stand Alone Complex, Vertigo
For the fans of: Norma Jean, UnderOATH, Ligeia, Botch
Listen: Facebook

Release date 22.05.2012
Solid State Records

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