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Thy Catafalque
Stengade, Copenhagen, DEN - 6/4
Album Reviews
A Room Swept White
No Love Lost EP
Written by: PP on 27/01/2015 23:49:47
A Room Swept White is a technically adept metalcore / melodic hardcore group from the Southern parts of the UK, but that's not all there is to the band. Their debut EP "No Love Lost" namely also attributes significant post-hardcore influence to the sound, as well as progressive elements that defy their crushing and screamed sections with their surprising depth. A good example is "This Life", which seamlessly traverses between progressive melodic hardcore, slightly whiny-ish emotional cleans, and standard metalcore sequences back and forth during its roughly four and a half-minute duration. The rough screams alone are somewhat poorly delivered, resulting in a monotonous and unvaried, albeit coarse style, but as soon as they juxtapose the cleans as a contrasting element against them, the expression works rather well.
The title track is, however, where A Room Swept White are at their very best. Here, the band utilizes older Misery Signals style polyrhythms and stop-start riffs to create a sense of complexion to the track that awes its listener straight away. They attempt a similar thing on "Time Heals", but here the effect isn't as strong, unfortunately. Second, I have to add that the clean vocals here are way too emo to suit the rest of the mix. Yes, While She Sleeps also uses cleans from time to time, but the delivery of these is more charismatic than what is achieved by A Room Swept White here.
Still, the EP is a good start because the instrumentals are excellent throughout. The vocals - both cleans and screams - need some work and improvement before the band will be able to challenge the bigger bands in the genre. But either way, their attempt at fusing together three very different genres is surprisingly enjoyable throughout the five tracks, even if it isn't quite ready enough yet to reach our higher grades.
Download: This Life, No Love Lost
For the fans of: Misery Signals, While She Sleeps
Listen: Facebook
Release date 12.01.2015
Self-Released