Review Summary: Short, snappy metalcore that harks back to 1990s Dark Tranquility while having flashes of modern day metalcore such as Parkway Drive, without the production values or bass work.
This short EP from young, upcoming Dublin band New Age Extinction summises metalcore today in an instant, which entails the fact that while it's catchy for the first few listens, the EP loses its weight and you are left craving more.
Sure, the vocals are a plus point, and the album itself being quite conceptual lyrically and points to future intelligent lyrical layers (a plus point for such a young band). The guitars are jagged, melodic and raw all at the same time, and the drums are tight and coherent.
What this album lacks is the assurance of good bass work, you can 'metaphorically' imagine the bass being recorded in a swamp, and while that's good for a genre like 'Goregrind', it doesn't quite ascertain to the modern day image of crisply produced metalcore.
Left 4 Dead : The opening song starts off like your atypical metalcore album 101, punchy and memorable. The breakdown at the end of the song is something of arcane bliss and beauty, the feeling you get when the girl you love rejects you and you turn to metalcore. You can literally feel the chords pulsing through your heart.
Speaking in Metaphors : The vocals in this song are highly innovative and the guitar work is again competent.
When the vocalists spouts ''It's .. ***ed.. Up'', you know the song is literally 'speaking in metaphors' with regard to the environment and world politics.
Ours is the Fury : This is where the band really shine, the song flows perfectly and you can literally feel oneself riding through dark metalcore waves without a seat-belt. The song even has a breakdown ridden passage that most deathcore bands would be proud to say is of their own making and accord. The vocalist growls are not to be stopped and you best not be within a 5 yard radius from these satanic bellows.
Drowning in Atlantis : The final song on the EP leaves you with a sense of 'What's next in the chapter of New Age Extinction'.
The song itself feels like an ode to the Parkway Drive album 'Deep Blue', encased with imagery of sea creatures and deathly black tides, and man being betrayed. Hence forth, 'A Grand Deception'.
All in all, while the album does wear thin after a while, its still quite a coherent EP, and with a foundation as solid as this with the possibility of better production in the future, the band can look forward to a promising future, and while man could not 'breathe' in Drowning in Atlantis, the genre of metalcore will be breathing rather exuberantly again once this garners attraction.
