Artist: Are Those Your Friends
Title: Lambs Turn Into Lions
Genre: Hardcore/ Metal
Release Date: 19th August 2011
Label: Acuity Music
Album Review
ARE THOSE YOUR FRIENDS’ debut, ‘Lambs Turn Into Lions’, takes a blend of rock, metalcore, and hardcore for a strong hailstorm of harsh vocals, clean melodic choruses, and churning groove metal mixed with a few experimental and melodic bits to make for an interesting album. Knowing each other since boyhood, this German four-piece have a solid connection and it shows in how they play their music. There are the chugging, thick hardcore riffs mixed with the rough roars that sound along the lines of bands more like UNDEROATH combined with the clean choruses that sound more like THRICE when it comes to tracks like ‘Unleash The Fury’ and ‘Shoulder To Shoulder’. The tracks start out hard and with the whole “stop n’ chug” formula that is famous in hardcore and also deathcore genres, but when the chorus hits things aim for the more rock oriented style. ‘Pictures Of You’ does the opposite as it carries a melodic tune throughout the entire song, while also layering harsh on clean vocals which adds a nice effect. Here the music is much catchier while being complex; very similar to something by HAWTHORNE HEIGHTS. However, the real highlight on the album would have to be the very brief, little melodic moments when everything quiets down such as on ‘Path Of Prosperity’. Here, listeners can pause and suddenly notice that maybe ARE THOSE YOUR FRIENDS are more than just throwing together chords and repeating them over and over, so it is good to see some solid songwriting that sounds progressive as opposed to the same hardcore based riffs again and again.
On the downside, this album can indeed get a bit repetitive. Like so many other bands who follow the modern or nu-metal formula of harsh verse and clean choruses, ARE THOSE YOUR FRIENDS tend to make all their songs like that. For those who love that style, it’s a great deal, but for those who were hoping to see maybe some songs that were all with screaming and some softer ones with the clean vocals to try and round out the album fully are going to be pretty disappointed with how one-sided the album tends to sound. Usually when it comes to issues like this a band can either capitalize on a strong musical structure that is diverse and enjoyable or a variation of vocals. ARE THOSE YOUR FRIENDS sadly don’t really do either of this, so mostly one will be stuck with either the hardcore based chugs or more metalcore based thrashings. Sometimes on a track like ‘Backstabber’ the band sounds like it is going in a technical direction with how sharp the guitars sound, but within the music it tends to fall back to the hard, pummelling chugs of tracks like ‘Paths Of Prosperity’. Overall, for those who like the metalcore based Christian-metal sound of scream first, sing later, ARE THOSE YOUR FRIENDS suit that style well (even though their music may not be as Christian oriented). There are no bad tracks here, just a slight lack of diversity in between sounds. ‘Lambs Turn Into Lions’ has some strong messages to enjoy. However, if their sophomore album ends up sounding the exact same way as their debut, it probably won’t have as much of an effect upon listeners who have already had more than enough of their fill with this debut. It’s not perfect, but well performed and shows promise and potential.
Tracklist
01. Unleash The Fury - 2:42
02. Backstabber - 3:18
03. Path Of Prosperity - 4:27
04. Bloodbrothers - 3:53
05. Fingerprints - 3:06
06. The Inner Voice - 3:09
07. Shoulder To Shoulder - 3:30
08. Pictures Of You - 2:53
09. Is That Being A Real Man? - 5:07
10. Lambs Turn Into Lions - 4:29
Line-up
Jan-Hendrik Boer - Lead Vocals, Guitar
Steffen Gros - Bass, Vocals
René Claußnitzer - Guitar
Jorge Boer - Drums, Vocals
Website
http://www.myspace.com/arethoseyourfriends
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 7
Total: 7 / 10
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