Review Summary: An energetic and strong release by Tragic Hero Record's newest rookies.
Each local scene has a band that has been there literally from the start, that has been there for years just waiting break into the national scene to grab you by the shirt and scream into your face, “Listen the f*ck up!” Enter
Armor For The Broken, a matured quintet of New Hampshire veterans who were recently signed to Tragic Hero Records and immediately began working hard on creating their debut album The Black Harvest.
What you would expect, more importantly, what you would want in a Metalcore release is in here. Harsh and emotional vocals with dynamic lyrics. The harsh vocals are very prominent and incredibly powerful and audible, the cleans are sprinkled throughout a few of the tracks and flow perfectly with the music. The guitars are definitely the best characteristic that this band has to offer, bringing a fresh amount of technicality, energy, and melody to the table that many Metalcore bands cannot pull off successfully these days. The breakdowns are hard and chugging and used throughout the album in a very low tuning. This may be off-putting due to the many bands that use this formula, however, the difference is well heard, they are very interesting, intricate, and are surprisingly timed well and used at appropriate times.
The variety and flow of tracks and what they bring to the table are also a plus for this band.
Drought of Truth is one of the best tracks on this album that shows of its beautiful usage of melody and devastating breakdowns that are used at appropriate moments during parts of the song.
Empty and Alone is a song that shows off the vocal power of this band. Cam Moretti displays competency in both his harsh and clean vocals, both performed by him. The introductory piece to this song shows the collective technicality of the band, with the drummers rolls and blast beats and the guitarists chaotic riffs devastating throughout the song save for the melodic bits used for the clean vocal chorus where Cam shows his very raw and powerful singing capability. The outro title track is a track that slows down from the energy of the album to a slower more passionate song. The piano and drum led piece is a very emotional piece about struggle. The track really is a powerful piece and shows that there was a lot of heart put into the track versus what I feel with many other bands who I imagine messing around with acoustic guitars and going, “F*ck yeah! Lets make this the outro piece!” It really shows AFTB's ability to create music outside of their heavy and devastating sound.
Clocking only 28 minutes, it is a very short release. However it lacks any filler, presenting you it's relentless aural assault through the first eight tracks until it reaches its outro track. Even with it being this short, Armor For The Broken have released just what they needed to show the national scene that they are a competent and mature band. The Black Harvest will definitely do its job in harvesting a slew of new fans with their collective talent.
