Review Summary: The fusion of post-hardcore and deathcore to passable results.
In Dying Arms is, essentially, one of the few acts in deathcore that is doing something new and unique with the genre. The band puts their own spin on the style mostly by fusing post hardcore based cleanly sung choruses and melodies into a crushing deathcore aural assault. As with anything fresh or new, the response is often split. Purists and sideline fans will doubtless cry foul, while others may hail it as revolutionary. While it’s hard to argue that it isn’t at least fairly unique, there’s plenty of evidence that there are gaping holes in the formula that make it less than it could be.
The front and center issues lie mostly with the vocal performance. The harsh vocals are competent enough and suit the music, with your usual guttural growls and piercingly high screams (think old school Chelsea Grin and all that comes with it). This side of things won’t exactly wow anyone, but it won’t turn many off immediately either. On the other hand, the clean singing that’s mostly responsible for the band standing out is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the choruses genuinely soar and feature solid hooks, but others are brought low by a gratingly whiny tone. Furthermore, the lyrics are easily the greatest pitfall on
Boundaries. Between angry deathcore genericisms and ineffective post hardcore tales of lost love, very few of the lines manage to hit anywhere near the mark.
On the other hand, a lot of the music keeps the album engaging. It would be simple to boil the songwriting down to deathcore verses and post hardcore sing-a-long choruses, but there’s a bit more to it than that. To be clear,
Boundaries does feature a lot of both. However, a strong focus on melody that’s often buried in the back half of most tracks reveals a bit more depth. “Horizons” and “Blind To The Truth” feature the absolute best the band has to offer (i.e. catchy choruses, pleasant clean guitars, heavy riffs and breakdowns). “11:11” even focuses entirely on soft guitars and clean singing to close the album out on an unpredictable note. However, songs such as “Second Best” and “Bathed In Salt” are the band at their worst thanks to bland chugging riffs and whiny vocals.
Thanks to effective songwriting, much of the album remains interesting despite the numerous pitfalls. In Dying Arms have something really fresh and new here, but still have a bit of work to do in the way of ironing out their delivery. At the very least, if you’ve been waiting for some new blood to inject something alien into the genre then In Dying Arms is a band to keep an eye on.
