The Resistance

Scars

Written by: SC on 26/07/2013 17:57:35

To seek and expand the boundaries is often a theme when it comes to trying to be the most interesting metal band on the scene at the moment. One way to seek this is that already established musicians join forces and use each others’ creativity and experience from the field. Just like every other project there is a great chance for success as well as failure, both when it comes to exploring the frontiers of genres and when it comes to joining forces.

One examples of a challenging band that consist of great metal personalities is the Swedish band The Resistance with the constellation of Marco Aro (re-joined The Haunted) on the vocals, Jesper Strömblad (ex In Flames) and Glenn Ljungström (ex In Flames) on the guitars and Chris Barkensjö (ex Kaamos) on the drums. Earlier this year the band released their rather well done debut EP “Rise From Treason” and now The Resistance are back with their first full-length album “Scars”, which the band promotes as “the extreme metal sound in 2013” and with this stated “Scars” is indeed a hard punch to the face and filled to the brim with harshness and aggression.

“Fire in the hole” are the opening words being shouted into your ears as you press play and from that point the album is hammering onwards without looking back at any point. Aro’s vocal is so rusty and rough that you can almost feel the searing feeling in the throat as he strains his voice on every single track. Lyrically the universe concerns themes like anti-religion and disappointments that breed self-contempt and hatred towards the world, which is solved the best by turning to the use of violence. All these themes and connections fit perfectly into the thick and noisy soundscape created by the heavily distorted instruments.

The pace is so fast that it seems as if Barkensjö almost cannot keep up on the drums. However, tracks like “Imperfected” and “I Bend – You Break” are heavier tracks than the rest and in my opinion these are some of the songs that are performed best because the otherwise quite fine riffs just drown in the wall of noise created by the speed and the enormous amount of distortion on the record. One of the best riffs on the record is to be found on the fast “The Serpant King” which instantly reminds you of Strömblad’s past in In Flames and luckily the riff continues to pop up during the rest of the song.

Overall “Scars” is just not my cup of mud. I personally think that the amount of distortion just smothers the guitar riffs on the fast tracks, just like the vocals are too highly mixed and the roaring and sometimes even trivial drums turn the entire escapade into a blur, sounding like you were standing right beside the highway in rush hour. I am sure that this music will be perfect for a live concert and the album sounds almost like it is a one-take with the audience edited out but on the positive side this gives the record a human edge to it. When this is said, I think those three tracks that I have mentioned above are rather great tracks but I am afraid that despite these songs I got really tired and light-headed while listening to the record while struggling to find some constructive moments in this world of destructiveness.

5

Download: Serpant King, Imperfected, I Bend – You Break
For The Fans Of: Hatebreed, Crowbar, Bloodbath
Listen: facebook.com

Release Date 10.05.2013
Earsplit Records


Related Items | How we score?
Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.