Review Summary: It's a deathcore release... that's about it.
As a whole, it’s safe to say deathcore is among the most uninteresting subgenres of metal. Like all genres of music there are good artists and bad artists, but bands like Emmure and Oceano who rely almost solely on breakdowns to get by give the entire genre a bad reputation. While The Acacia Strain isn’t part of this abominable group, they’re not particularly innovators either. It’s easy to dismiss their music as run-of-the-mill deathcore, which is a fairly accurate description for their sound, and their 2010 EP
The Most Heard Unheard does little to help their cause.
Of the 10 tracks on
The Most Heard Unheard, four are older live tracks, one is a demo, and one is a cover of Slayer’s ‘Seasons in the Abyss,’ the latter being the only one differentiating itself from the rest. Every other song is just so boring. They all sound terribly similar and bleed into one another making it difficult to tell when one ends and the other begins. On top of that, none deviate from the pattern of heavily distorted guitar riffs, monotonous vocals, and repetitive breakdown climaxes until they end. The live tracks are particularly annoying because Vincent Bennett yells nonsense like “
Check this shit out” before every breakdown, and believe me there are plenty of breakdowns on here.
To put it simply,
The Most Heard Unheard is nothing more than a safe deathcore release. None of the songs are remarkable in anyway nor are they offensive - they’re just… there. Admittedly there are a few cool breakdowns on the EP and some decent riffs scattered around, but in the context of the EP they do little to make it a worthwhile listen beginning to end. If you’re a die-hard The Acacia Strain you’ll probably enjoy this and if you hate deathcore it definitely won’t change your mind, but at the end of the day both fans and haters alike will agree that
The Most Heard Unheard isn’t anything special.
