Artist: Heart of a Coward
Title: Severance
Genre: Metal
Release Date: 4th November 2014
Label: Century Media
Album Review
This is a monster. ‘Monstro’ is appropriately titled, and provides the kind of start to an album that’s hard to forget. Hit play and everything just explodes in a speaker-shredding wall of overloading guitar / bass / drum racket. It’s not so much cranked up to 11 as 111. A wall of noise, grunt and chug guitars blast at the fore and everything’s reached overload before the first cavernous growl of vocals. With such a strong and ferocious start, the challenge is to sustain the momentum. ‘Prey’ maintains the weight, and while providing the first accessible cleanly-sung chorus, the guitars are still head-shredding, the stuttering riff tripping over itself in tearing blocks of sound.
There’s a hint of FAITH NO MORE about ‘Distance’, but the brutal overloading guitar is more STRAPPING YOUNG LAD. The intricately interwoven guitar motif of ‘Nauseam’ introduces new textures and shapes to the album, but doesn’t abate the sonic onslaught. Yes, this is brutal, bloody stuff. It’s not explicitly thrash or metal, and it’s certainly not industrial, but it is dark and it is heavy. The power of ‘Severance’ lies in its... power. If this sounds like a case of stating the obvious, let’s look at this another way: we’re talking about gig watts of power, skull-crushing volume translated in the studio and not even fractionally diminished by even the crappiest of stereos.
The atmospheric intro to ‘Eclipsed’ is laid to waste with a shower of devastating power chords, albeit as a slower tempo. Rather than providing respite, it only adds to the immense weight. ‘Psychophant’ may be the most overtly ‘metal’ track on the album, but it’s rent with a grimy crust-punk hue and a gritty Grindcore edge. If I was looking to pick fault, I may suggest that ‘Severance’ gets a bit samey, but such criticisms are easily countered by the fact it’s the relentless sonic onslaught that makes this album what it is. Feel the force!
Tracklist
01. Monstro
02. Prey
03. Distance
04. Nauseam
05. Deadweight
06. Eclipsed
07. Psychophant
08. Mirrors
09. Desensitise
10. Severance
Line-up
Jamie Graham - Vocals
Carl Ayers - Guitars
Steve Haycock - Guitars
Vishal "V" Khetia - Bass
Christopher "Noddy" Mansbridge - Drums
Website
https://www.facebook.com/heartofacoward
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 9
Total: 8.5 / 10
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