Review Summary: A promising debut and a breath of fresh air.
It’s easy to dismiss Rise to Remain, a band that, in the minds of their detractors, owe the major label deal, high profile tours and critical acclaim they’ve received to a certain relative of singer, Austin’s. However, Rise to Remain are more than just another metalcore also ran in the seemingly perpetual stream of bands still being churned out a whole ten years after the genre’s inception. What sets them apart from other metalcore bands to have emerged recently is that rather than trite breakdowns and lazy integration of electronica that seem to definite this newer generation of metalcore bands, their sound bears more of a resemblance to the pioneers of the genre, namely Killswitch Engage and All That Remains. So ultimately, everything heard on “City of Vultures” is really very familiar.
What makes the blatant generic-ness of the music so forgivable is the quality of the songs. Lead single “The Serpent” is driven by a Lamb of God esque groove and memorable chorus hook, whilst the title track delves into more extreme territory. This is a breath of fresh air in a scene that's tenacity has become more than a little frustrating. However the band’s greatest asset is undoubtedly guitarist Ben Tovey, whose exemplary playing is both highly technical and remarkably melodic, particularly so in the lengthy solo in “Nothing Left”. The other musicians are also quite clearly vey skilled, although Austin’s vocals can occasionally drift into whiny territory, although this is to be expected of metalcore vocalists.
Whilst far from being the finished article at this point in time, Rise to Remain are still very accomplished for a band who’ve just released their debut album and could, with the support of major label EMI, go on to become one of the UK’s bigger contemporary metal bands. As well as hopefully being judged on their on their own merits as opposed to being forever dogged by comparisons with Iron Maiden. Rise To Remain have managed to remind the metal world of why this was such an exciting sound when it was first unleashed upon fans and avoided the pitfalls of its recent practitioners. There are more exciting things happening right now, but this band have the potential to be a similarly exciting proposition, given the time to develop appropriately and and experiment more.
