This one was hard for me to rate. While this style is new to me and I like it, this album has its issues. Listen to any song on its own and you will probably enjoy it but try to listen to this album in one shot and it becomes stale quick. For a hardcore album the instruments are decidedly not very heavy, but the gut wrenching vocals make up for it in that department. The music itself is pretty catchy but for the most part it just consists of strumming power chords and simple drum beats accompanied by some melodic guitar riffing. That being said, there are some pretty interesting arrangements to be found on the record, especially the endings to some of the songs(21 and Those Miles Meant Everything ). Vocalist is the main downfall in my opinion. Although he doesn't sound particularly bad, he never sounds different in any of the songs. In fact none of the vocal lines are discernibly different than any of the other ones on the album. He has no range and nothing stands out. 21 is by far the most varied and best track on the album.
This album was very homogenous. Most of the songs followed a similar path. One of the only tracks that stood out was "Where the Time WIll Go" because things slowed down a bit. The monotonous screaming failed to hold my attention, it all sounded expected in ways that Modern Life Is War's "Witness" never did.
"If The Smiths played hardcore" - this pretty much sums it up right there. Amazing album that is emotionally gripping and touches on things that hold weight to me personally.
