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Heart Of A Coward

This Place Only Brings Death

Written by: PP on 01/10/2023 10:51:55

After replacing their original vocalist Jamie Graham with Kaan Tasan a year before the release of their fourth album "The Disconnect", Heart Of A Coward have been gradually shifting their sound towards metalcore. Part of this has to do with Tasan's higher range that allows for more soaring choruses and higher-flying melodies (see the "tear me apart..." bits of "Devour Me", for instance), which are just better suited for metalcore type songs than they are for the brutal, brain-shattering djent, which the band was known for in the past. Their fifth album "This Place Only Brings Death" essentially completes this transition and leaves djent mostly as an afterthought amidst an Architects-inspired lofty and atmospheric metalcore expression.

While the backing symphonies are still as menacing as ever, it's clear that the semi-clean, scratchily screamed choruses are pulling the band towards a more mainstream type of metalcore audience. Cuts like "Captor" and "Passenger" display an uncanny ability to combine heavy chugging with infectiously catchy choruses that belong right up there with the rest of the UK metalcore royalty.

The riffage has been simplified from their monstrously heavy djent days, but there's still plenty of swirling brutality within. Songs like "Dehumanise" and "Hex" demonstrate a down-tuned (yet non-compressed, unlike the Rise Records releases of yesteryear) and dense guitar base that feels as crushing as it does rewarding.

Still, the record feels very much like a modern metalcore release. It's no longer right to describe it as tech metal, and the progressive elements have also been shed in favour of a more straightforward metalcore approach. It also means it's now competing in an extremely saturated genre. The number of bands writing heavy, yet melodic, clean-vs-scream dynamic in this style is a list too long to include in this review. The real question is therefore whether Heart Of A Coward does enough here to distinguish themselves from the grey mass of bands doing the same thing. Is it better than an Architects release? Probably not, but they still deliver plenty of solid, sing-alongable metalcore crackers on this one.

Download: Captor, Surrender To Failure, Devour Me, Passenger
For the fans of: Architects, Northlane, Structures, Monuments, Bury Tomorrow
Listen: Facebook

Release date 22.09.2023
Arising Empire Records