Invent, Animate

Everchanger

Written by: TL on 17/09/2014 20:03:14

While my forays into the heavier territories of metalcore have been rather occasional for some years, the recent resurgence of Britain's Architects must have helped rekindle my interest slightly, prompting me to take interest in "Everchange", the debut album sent to us by Texas group Invent, Animate. The album sounds like the band seeks to establish itself in the more uncompromising and technical corner of the genre, alongside bands like Erra, Volumes and Northlane, with the bass and rhythm guitar adopting many an ear-twisting note pattern to keep the flow abrupt and vivid, while the lead guitar either tremoloes away eeriely or engages in technical, tapped lead melodies. If only the cymbals couldn't be heard counting "1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.." almost constantly across the whole album, you could be lead to believe that this is a mathy record, although there's probably a good stretch up to the main pioneers in that department. Drummer Trey Celaya otherwise delivers diverse patterns with hands and feet alike, and frontman Ben English also supplies a good assortment of vocals, primarily of the growled variety, both medium and fairly low, so while some high Aaron Gillespie-like scratched cleans find their way into the songs on a regular basis, the balance is clearly slanted away from your typical "harsh verse, clean chorus" formula.

On the upside, Invent, Animate show a clear ambition to deliver both in terms of melody and in terms of getting your blood and fists pumping, as the guitar work is rich and the tempo changes are frequent, providing both mid-paced breakdown parts and frantic hardcore scampering. The record's main drawback however, is that regardless of these changes of pace, the intensity rarely gives an inch, instead opting for a proper metallic "GO HARD CONSTANTLY" kind of attitude, which is going to put a strain on the pit stamina of even the most enthusiastic mosher. Considering Architects' "Lost Forever // Lost Together" from this year, the veterans showed how to ebb and explode, as subtle changes in mood made you feel it more when things truly got heavy, and such a touch seems to yet lie beyond the grasp of Invent, Animate. Their experiments - while certainly displaying a compelling and contemporary grasp of the genre - appear in a much too labyrinthine form, at least for me to take away much that is truly memorable despite a solid number of playthroughs. "Forest Haven" appears to me like the closest to a fully resolved track, and "Half-Life" has some rather blazing soloing to remember towards the ends, but otherwise the tracks on "Everchanger" struggle to stand apart. Starting out then, Invent, Animate seem to have emerged with on par knowledge of how to engage your feet and fists, but for those listening at home it's likely to come away hoping that the next album has a bit more for the mind and the memory.

6

Download: Forest Haven, Half-Life
For The Fans Of: Erra, Northlane, Volumes, Architects
Listen: facebook.com/inventanimate

Release date 26.08.2014
Tragic Hero Records

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