Vessels

Black Teeth EP

Written by: TAJ on 24/03/2013 14:41:53

Vessels is a quintet from Albany, New York that values the chaotic hardcore sound and follows in footsteps of the likes as Every Time I Die. Despite having played together as a group for over half a decade “Black Teeth EP” is their first released material.

Initially as play is pressed the words “I HATE THIS CITY MORE THAN YOU EVER KNOW” leaps right at you and there is no doubt that what we are dealing with is a "straight in your face attitude" sort of record. While listening to “Black Teeth” a comparison to Every Time I Die is inevitable as Vessels does more than just resembles ETID: They have the same slightly off-sounding hardcore flavor, the abrupt changes of tempo and the hoarse yelling vocals. Borrowing as much as they do, performing it quite well and topping it off with a fine production, are all factors helping to establish a decent starting point. However those factors invites possible issues with them in their wake as well. First of all, while listening to Vessels I cannot stop thinking of Every Time I Die at almost any point, thus setting up a personal identity for the band becomes an almost impossible task. This leads me to the next flaw: When reaching for a specific formula, minor details that bring more variety and dynamic to the sound scape might be overlooked or lost in the process, which I believe to be the case for “Black Teeth EP”

All this said and despite majorly having shaped their sound around Every Time I Die, Vessels have brought something different to the mix as there are more melodic hardcore passages which occasionally have snuck their way into the songs. The effect; well, I think some of the adrenaline infused attitude we see from the Every Time I Die influence gets dampened slightly, yet I find interest in the blend as it opens an opportunity to break the chains of copying and create some needed individuality. So for the full length I hope to see more of this and for it to be better implemented because the two styles seem to have no smooth transition on “Black Teeth EP” but rather sound like they've been thrown in a bit awkwardly.

However, final track “Atlas” is completely different from anything described so far. It begins with calm and peaceful guitar play while the left out instruments slowly joins in together with a less aggressive yell echoing from the background. From this point it takes on in volume and the vocals even transmute into actual singing from time to time. Despite growing louder “Atlas” has a sort of “time to wave goodbye and say thanks for tonight” sort of feeling which makes it a great fit as closing song for “Black Teeth”.

6

Download: Be Careful, I Am Death, Atlas.
For the fans of: Every Time I Die, Stray From The Path, Converge, Norma Jean.
Listen: Facebook

Release date 12.02.2013
Hotfoot Records


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