Upon This Dawning are not a new band in the music scene. Hailing from Verona, Italy; they formed in 2006 and have already released an EP and one studio album. They’re also featured on the newest Punk Goes Pop Volume 5 compilation album with the cover of Carly Rae Jespen’s “Call Me Maybe”. After releasing their single ‘Of Human Action’ in 2011, many people were anticipating what they were preparing to come out with next. Following up their singles is the arrival of their second full length titled, “To Keep Us Safe”.
Upon This Dawning are what I like to call a pop metal band, following the typical formula: “screamed” verse, clean vocalized chorus, back to a “screamed” verse, rinse repeat until finished. Their first track, “A New Beginning: opens with an electronic influence prelude flowing into the introduction of their screamer coupled with the main riffs and programmed violins. I’ve mentioned before in previous reviews that the introduction to an album tells you what to expect from the rest a majority of the time, and Upon This Dawning are no exception to this rule.
The album is filled with songs with poppy sounding metalcore songs, which is not an attempt at insulting this album in anyway. The songs are simply catchy for a genre like metal. The use of conventional piano sounds by their synth/key player add in some great parts to this album. An example found in what is the strongest song on the record, ‘Of Human Action’ used to transition into a breakdown. Another in “The Sound of Your Breath” with some sort of mystical synth tone I’d imagine hearing in The Twilight Zone.
Production quality of this album is as good as any other of the genre and scene. The screamer has a powerful voice, the clean vocalist albeit a bit whiny also adds a good quality voice to their music. Guitars sound good, but don’t bring about a lot of innovation which is rather disappointing. Drums of course are of high quality, so you won’t have to worry about this album sounding scratchy or muffled in your headphones or speakers.
To Keep Us Safe is one of those albums that don’t bring anything new to the table, but take what was made before, recycle it, and make it their own. I can’t say that the album is bad in any way, it’s certainly listenable, and sounds good, but it’s definitely not a genre innovator, and in my opinion, artists should strive to bring something unique and different to the game. I know I’ve definitely heard this before just in other bands like Make Me Famous, or That’s Outrageous!. To Keep Us Safe is a decent metalcore release and if you’re the type of person to like hearing what the newest thing of that genre is, this is for you.