Bury Tomorrow - Portraits [2009]

Genre: Melodic Metalcore
Label: Basick Records
URL: http://www.myspace.com/burytomorrowband
Country: Southampton/Portsmouth, UK

Up and coming UK act Bury Tomorrow have gained a lot of renown lately. Reviews at Kerrang!, posted in Best New Music-section in Rock Sound and, of course, the awesome blog And then i heard it., helped BT come into the scene.
Bury Tomorrow is a very melodic kind of metalcore with symphonic clean vocals and heavy, deep screams. As BT themself claim, many bands dare not put too much melody in their music, especially vocal-wise, but Bury Tomorrow take no risks. While keeping it brutal, they embrace their melodic side aswell.
Portraits is a solid metalcore album, which stands a lot of listens. Don't wear it out though, because the possibility of it becomes a minus.


Best track: Confessions
Score: 8,5/10

Gwen Stacy - A Dialogue [2009]

Genre: Metalcore/Christian
Label: Solid State Records
URL: http://www.myspace.com/gwenstacy
Country: Indiana, USA

Christian metalcore act Gwen Stacy's second full lenght came as a complete surprise to me. I had no idea they were making new material, and out of the blue dropped a new album. Reading 'Gwen Stacy' and '2009' didn't even catch my attention because I was certain it was something old by some reason.
A Dialogue starts with a very melodic piece, The First Words, which has a pretty fitting title for a starter track, don't you think? It has it's melodic parts, but still they don't stray too far from their heavy sound. What starts with clean singing and catchy melody turns into a brick to the face. This is the general rule with Gwen Stacy and their A Dialogue. Very melodic, yet heavy breakdowns and powerful vocals.
When hearing this album it really makes me wonder why I hesitated and decided not to go when they came to play in Sweden. I've heard them before, I liked what I heard, so why I didn't go troubles me. If you get a chance to see them, don't let the moment pass. I know I won't.

Side note: Don't be scared by the christian tag. A lot of people frown upon christian bands, but try to be a little open minded. You will most likely not be disappointed.

Best track: A Dialogue
Score: 7/10

The Arusha Accord - The Echo Verses [2009]

Genre: Technical Metalcore
Label: A Wolf At Your Door Records
URL: http://www.myspace.com/thearushaaccorduk
Country: Reading, UK

First full length release after a split and an EP, UK metalcore act The Arusha Accord strengthens the bond between TAA and fellow countrymen Architects even more.
At 0:01 in the opening track Dead To Me the word 'Architects' appear in my mind. Pretty similar riffs, same technical metalcore style, similar vocals. One thing different though is the dual-vocal approach, which should always expect a warm welcome. This is however nothing new, but something to be noted. As I've not seen this band live (or any other band that has two main vocalists for that matter) it oughta be pretty awesome.
Even though similar to other bands in the same genre, it has a pretty unique sound to it. The two vocalists each have their own "area", one of them have pretty high screams, while the other do the lows, and both do awesome clean vocals.

I'm a little disappointed though as most songs sound pretty the much the same. There are no "weird" intermissions, nothing that stands out. A pretty darn decent album though, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone.


Best track: Dead To Me
Score: 7/10

Across The Sun - Pestilence & Rapture [2009]

Genre: Symphonic Metalcore/Progressive
Label: Authentik
URL: http://www.myspace.com/acrossthesun
Country: Oregon, USA

What caught my attention on this album is the beautiful cover artwork. I really like it when bands put some effort in creating a good looking cover for their album, and that's why I decided to go for it.
I have to admit, the first listen wasn't very pleasing. As I heard the somewhat out-of-genre clean vocals in the first song May Silence Keep You, I thought "what the hell is this?". It didn't fit in the sound of the band at all.
Then comes the most catchy and awesome song for a long time. The Ardent Optimist. I have to say that the clean vocals really DO sound amazing, and that this song made me realize how unique and awesome his voice actually is. Heavy riffs and growling in the verse parts, soothing and enthralling through the chorus.

Something I don't get is that they only have around 13,000 plays on last.fm, and ~as many on their Myspace. Having released three albums in total should yield a little more listens than that. Nevertheless, these numbers will shoot through the sky, I'm pretty darn sure of it.

Best track: The Ardent Optimist
Score: 9/10

How Things Proceed - Live at Kafé 44, Stockholm (Last show)

Genre - Metalcore/Progressive/Experimental
Label: Unsigned - broken up
URL - http://www.myspace.com/howthingsproceed
Country - Stockholm, Sweden
Note: Last show


Really sad to see these guys breaking up when they're on top. After a pretty big lineup change they've changed their sound, going from pretty melodic and regular metalcore to a more chaotic and even more progressive and experimental version. The reason they're breaking up is because the vocalist and the guitarrist don't have time to be in a band anymore, and the remaining two members feel like they can't find any members dedicated enough to steer it all up.

To the show itself. As usual when you see HTP play, you want more. More more more. 4 songs isn't enough, and you feel like you could keep listening to it for many hours without stop, where the only time to you have to leave is because your ears are bleeding.
I don't know what else to say. I'm really sad they decided to break up and I hope they'll come back some time!

Until then, feel free to check out the guitarrist Oscars other band, Played Out!.