Review Summary: This is not their breakout album, but if they keep it up their sophomore effort will be.
Band: This Or The Apocalypse
Album: Monuments
Label: Lifeforce Records
[a]http://www.myspace.com/thisortheapocalypse[/a]
Rating: 3
Everyone knows Veil of Maya right? If not, it is not a bad idea to check out their first album. Anyway, Veil of Maya is one of the bands that is for a thinking man with their complexity. Well now we have a Metalcore equivalent in the incarnation of This Or The Apocalypse. Hailing from Lancaster, PA and weighing in as a five-piece, This Or The Apocalypse, TOTA, has be described as “the thinking man’s mosh” and released their debut
Monuments in the middle of September.
Right when the opener, “
No Horizons”, starts, you can hear some of the complexity of the guitar riffs. These riffs for the most part are found throughout the album with the drummer matching their complexity note by note sometimes. The guitarists defiantly have skill to write these types of riffs and then play them perfectly. One big problem though is they sometimes have the sameish sound coming out but in a different pattern, making the songs sound the same when they are not. The drummer has a somewhat easier role in TOTA’s sound. He just takes what the guitarists do and transplants it to his drum set.
The problem with this is that he uses a lot of double bass, a commonplace in metal nowadays, and sometimes it fits but sometimes it fails poorly. When his drumming is dead on, it makes the song what it is and fits the band perfectly. When he misses, it makes it look like the band wrote each part separately, lucky for the listener this only happens a few time. One thing I found magnificent about the game, is their vocalist. Where other Metalcore bands are growling and singing, TOTA is just screaming and letting the instruments dictate the band’s sound.
This works wonders for the band to standout in the overflow of Metalcore bands out there. Luckily for TOTA, they are a young band that knows where they want to mold their sound. They are already on the road to that sound, and will benefit greatly for their touring and them being signed to Lifeforce. This is not their breakout album, but if they keep it up their sophomore effort will be.
