Emmure, the controversial deathcore band, never fails to bring us that hardcore angry feel. Now they're back angry and even more controversial.
With an opening track titled, "Bring a Gun to School" we shouldn't expect any joking around from Emmure. We shouldn't expect to see any comic book titles or anything laughable. This intro punches you dead in the mouth. If you planned on casually listening to this album, you're not now. This grabs you by the throat and forces you to pay attention to them. Of course, the song title bringing controversy from ex band member Ben.
The track blending pretty well into Nemesis, heavy vocalist Frankie roars "No I don't care what they want, I'll never be what they want me to be". Already showing his deathcore rage he goes on to tell us he really don't care what anyone thinks about him. Emmure shows it metalcore influences and chugs along to the beat of the song, while gracing us with a few higher sounding lead riffs. Although, not anything very impressive or mind blowing it's very effective to Emmure's style.
A lot of the songs on the album feature a lot of this chug and play a few lead notes style, but another song that stuck out at me was, "A Gift A Curse". "Even if I die, I'll never rest in piece' Frankie says at the beginning of the track. This sets the mood for the whole song. Its then sparked with a bright metalcore riff, followed by Frankie bellowing the same lyrics he spoke in the beginning of the song. This track ensures not everything is going to sound exactly the same.
The very next track "E" screams mosh call. When a song contains screams as aggressive as this, riffs as low as this, vocal chants, lyrics like "You're fucking sick of the scene", and ordering lyrics you know this is a major mosh song. This song would be fun to see live in a pit. It adds a lot of fun, exciting, energy to the record.
"Like Lamotta" has a little bit to offer in the beginning but soon dies as its become part of the repetitive song structure of Emmure.
"Most Hated" is another one of those Emmure tracks that demands your attention, now. The drum track booms into your ear drums and Frankie tells tells us straight out, "You can hate me all you want, because I don't give a shit". Like a lot of Emmure material, the lyricism is very poor but delivers well do to the deathcore mood they set.
"Grave Markings" 's tempo is all over the place. One second the tempo is high the next its a little lower. This track Emmure shows us everything they have to offer in one track. At this point if you don't like this track put the album down. We get some high leads, some soft leads, the Emmure chugs, Frankie's vicious screams as well as his throat lashing screams. If I had to recommend somewhere to start with Emmure, it would be this track.
A high point in the quickly turns into a low point with, "Hitomi's Shinobi". This song is starts off as a huge mess. Then advances to hear girl moans which completely loses all your attention. Then we get some electronic sounds, which start to get the song back on track, then ends with a softer riff.
"Girls Don't Like Boys, Girls Like 40s and Blunts" is such an awful name for a song, but is surprisingly a good one. We hear a few good bass lines, solid shredding, and ear appealing descending on the fretboard. The song progresses to feature an extremely weak breakdown, but thankfully doesn't last long and the song comes to a close.
The album ends with a track titled, "We Were Just Kids" and its pretty emotional. Frankie is half angry, half upset and I'm not sure how to feel about it. A part of me reaches out and feels sorry for him as he says, "I want your heart but I don't deserve it". As this song comes to end and closes the record, the melody of it gets to you. It gets to you in a good way.
This record is going to be overlooked by a lot of people, but it shouldn't. Sure, Emmure has a few obnoxious generic moments, some drama, and half of the record's songs are structured very similarly but there's some light at the end of the tunnel. The record features a lot of fun metalcore riffs and energetic moshing moments. Its better than people are going to put it out to be.
7/10