Review Summary: You don’t need to reinvent the wheel to make something good.
Post-Hardcore lately has been such a drag to me. It is full of bad bands doing the same thing, rinse and repeat over and over again, with nothing new coming out of it. But with each new Band, and each new band’s release, they just get worse and worse. However, a few bands manage to be real diamonds in the rough and while not doing anything all that new, they manage to do it very well, displaying a lot of avidity and talent. Enter Mswhite, one of Rise Record’s newest talents (a word that is not synonymous with many of its other bands). Hailing from Italy, their newest release titled Squares proves to be a must for your typical Post-Hardcore fanatic.
After the introductory track, the band blows open the door with their first track
A Snake Biting Its Own Tail. you soon begin to realize that Mswhite has a very unrelenting momentum and a sound heavier than most of your run of the mill Post-Hardcore bands. You may roll your eyes at this because it seems the heavier the band, the worse they are. However, Mswhite use a lot of melody in their sound to display their talent. While
A Snake Biting Its Own Tail may open heavy, it will often mix between melodic and heavy bits. Mswhite utilizes clean vocals very well. The cleans are mixed very with the screams of the lead vocalist and the melodic sweeps from the guitars and provides one of the more enjoyable bits of the album.
The second actual song on the album is titled
I Breathe The Sun which is a re-recording of the original Demo that the band posted back in 2010. It opens with a crisp guitar part leading into harsh screams. This pattern continues until the clean vocalist comes in. The singer shows a lot of competency and has a great range, going from mid range singing to more soaring vocals. This does not mean that the screamer is bad, the screamer definitely shows avidity and has a good range from shrill highs to more harsh lows. This track also shows the talent of the drummer. He has a great pace and puts his cymbals to good use in this song.
Sinking Nowhere Over The Wisdom is the most uniquely constructed track where the band attempts to move out of its comfort zone and it proves to be a valiant effort. The song for the first bit shifts between chaotic and spastic riffs to more heavy and chugging elements. Although Chugging these days is a tell-tale sign of a bad band, its mix with the chaotic elements prove to be a great addition. This devastating intro changes quickly to a melodic bit with soaring vocals which shows that the band can definitely make great transitions between moods in their songs. This transitions back into the heavy bits at the beginning of the song with its spastic and chugging combination.
V.I.T.R.I.O.L. offers the most unique song to the bunch. It begins with a guitar build up reminiscent to that of
City Of Caterpillar. This buildup bridges into a burst of intensity and emotion by the screamer really showing off his talent. It then goes back into the buildup at the beginning to end the song.
Mswhite proves to be a refreshing addition to the Rise roster. Although not doing anything all that original, they manage to avoid the traps that would make them another terrible Post Hardcore band. Squares should be a good album for a couple of spins and should be a band to watch in the next couple of years.
