Artist: Scarred By Beauty
Title: Sutra
Genre: Metalcore
Release Date: 13th June 2011
Label: Mighty Music
Album Review
‘Sutra’ is SCARRED BY BEAUTY’s full length debut, and cracks through the surface that so many other metalcore bands usually get trapped under when they crank out their first debut. SCARRED is more experimental while still having that “in your face” quality to them that so many metalcore bands take on, something that the band uses to their advantage not only in an aggressive state but also emotionally. The vocals are about the only parts that really seem metalcore based; the rest is more melodic or progressive metal. Tracks like ‘Ember’ are almost gothic or doom metal sounding in their melancholic guitar tones that tend to just drift along, and then suddenly explode into these hyper technical movements that are similar to either MESHUGGAH or BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME. Other tracks like ‘About Words’ and ‘Woman’ are more straightforward metalcore, but still highly melodic despite the semi repetitiveness of the music and doesn’t just “chug along”.
There is still many lengthy, emotional chord progressions that invoke more than just head banging. Make no mistake, this is not Emo-core or scream-o metal bits amongst the likes of AIDEN or THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, but compared to most metalcore that go for more of a thrash heavy outlet, this is certainly emotionally depth based. And perhaps it’s a good thing because it seems to attract fans quite easily. Even the less emotional tracks like ‘Oh Brother, I Believe’ still stay impressive because they replace the emotional bits with technical parts that just hit hard, especially when it comes to the guitar bits. There are some chugging bits, and then parts where it seems like one is hearing a MUSHUGGAH solo. Sometimes the vocals take on this electrified spoken word drone that can be a hit or miss, but brings the music back on that emotional aspect. The only track that seems to be void of emotional parts and all about aggression is ‘Circle The Reservoir’, which just comes at one like a freight train and continues hitting hard all the way through in its ferocious nature, so listeners can get a chance to enjoy the highly “metal” parts of SCARRED as well.
However, the best track is probably the closer ‘Mountain’ which has an epic quality that heightens the aggression to the way the guitars are based and just build and build up to the crescendo when there is just a moment of the drums and vocals going at it and then everything comes back together till it fades out. For a debut album, ‘Sutra’ is very impressive and offers a specific slab of metalcore that is highly emotional and takes a step away from the usual groove or deathcore hyped up bits that seems to be the popular choice of metalcore brand these days. For working on this piece for about five years in the making, the result was well worth it. Hopefully SCARRED will take the next step forward and continue evolving their music emotionally and technically while retaining their enjoyable metalcore base.
Tracklist
01. Indika - 3:30
02. Circle The Reservoir - 4:18
03. We Swim - 3:35
04. Oh Brother, I Believe - 4:05
05. Embers - 3:20
06. About Words - 4:37
07. Top Of The Morning - 3:25
08. A Million Metaphors - 2:57
09. Woman - 5:02
10. Mountain - 4:36
Line-up
Dennis Leszkowicz – Drums
Chris Kreutzfeldt – Bass
Jonathan Albrechtsen – Vocals
Daniel Leszkowicz – Guitar
Asser Topp-Mortensen – Guitar
Website
www.myspace.com/scarredbybeauty
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Total: 8 / 10
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