The Ottawa Hoax - 'Kid Gloves, Made With Real Kids' (self released) 4.5/5

I first encountered Bristol hardcore / metalcore outfit The Ottawa Hoax a good few years ago when my old mate, and former band buddy Jim Cogan was producing their debut demo, and I was impressed with what I heard. then as is often the case with local and unsigned bands they dropped off my radar, but now they are back with this their latest ep.

There are four cuts on offer and I am finding this one really enjoyable.We start with God's Rottweiler a delightfully brutal little exercise in blending old school hardcore attitude and aggression with more modern metalcore sensibilities, and it works really well, there is none of the cliche clean v dirty vocal interplay going on. Yes there are clean and dirty vocals but they are blended together so well the transitions are barely noticeable, and the result is a sweet little mosh your brains out opus that makes even this old hippy want to start a circle pit.

Next up is Mendeleev, a slightly more experimental opus that comes over like Melt Banana meeting Rolo Tomassi for one helluva fucked up blues jam. Chuck in the Converge influenced Odourdose and the Gay For Johnny Depp meets AFI fueled Kid Gloves with sweet acoustic passages inter-cut with some first rate hardcore brutality and the result is a sweet little ep that is gonna win this lot a lot of friends.


Recommended - Highly recommended

For fans of.. Converge, Rolo Tomassi, The Hotel Ambush, The Bled....

We Die Tonight - "Stem The Tide" - (Self released) 3.5/5

'Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the inbox....' The tide of metalcore wannabes had been drying up over the past few months, and I was starting think the whole movement was dead or at least on its last legs; but then with out warning my inbox and ears are suddenly brutally assaulted by this four tracker by London hopefuls We Die Tonight, to show us that the corpse of metalcore hasn't quite finished kicking just yet.

To be honest, this one aint that bad, and does have something interesting to bring to the table. While in some places it does sound a bit like almost every other metalcore outfit I've been sent recently, in other places it show some creativity. There's the superb climax to opener Dancing With Daggers with its impressive selection of riffs, insanely heavy approach and some cool and controlled dirty vocals; and the wonderful Salt In The Sharkbite which kicks off with a very impressive speedcore opening, takes in a mathcore sequence that make Periphery sound like a 4/4 rock and roll band and some glorious post thrash brutal guitar attack.

But there is a fundamental flaw here, and that's the vocals. Like every other metal core outfit since the dawn of time we have the old clean and dirty vocalist interplay here. Now because every metalcore band on the planet, and their dogs are doing that the whole thing since the year dot, it's starting to become a bit of a cliche, and unless its done very very well, just doesn't work. And sadly this is the case here.

Now please, please, please don't get me wrong , both the clean and dirty vocals here are good, both guys (that's if it IS two guys and not Peter Park doing vocal gymnastics - the press notes that came with this aint clear about this point), are powerful, clear understandable and suit the music well. But its just they blend together like oil and water. They just don't sit well together, The dirty vocals are powerful direct and brutal, the cleans softer in attack and are hesitant is a sort of Elvis Costello way, the result is they clash horribly in the mix, jangle the nerves and just don't sound right.

This is a shame cos if the clean vocals were taken out and the lines added to the dirty's you would have a bit of metalcore gem here. And by the same measure if the cleans sang everything We Die Tonight would be a power / thrash metal band to take note of... but together...nah. The problem is compounded by the fact that as instrumentalists WDT are one of the best bands I've heard in a while, and with either vocals they could be great.

In Short, Not bad, but....

For Fans Of... Screaming Eyes, Periphery, Devil Wear Prada, Terakai, etc...

As I Lay Dying - 'Decas' (metalblade) 1.5/5

Hum, this latest offering from California metalcore merchants As I Lay Dying is a bit of a weird one. Basically it can be split into three sections, Three new tracks, three covers and then five remixes from their back catalogue.

Things start of promisingly enough. The three original new tracks are good enough slices of passably good metalcore that tick all the right boxes for the genre; nice crunchy pit friendly riffs, pig grunt verses, big clean harmony choruses, nothing too earth shattering over all but good enough to pass muster, especially Moving Forward, which is raised above the ordinary with some impressive guitar work

Then we move onto the covers section, and things here are not so hot. Now I'm of the opinion that classic tracks should only be covered if your gonna go and do something interesting with them, and sadly that is not the case here. The rendition of the Slayer classic War Ensemble comes over like an iffy tribute band, Judas Priests Hellion / Electric Eye is a bold attempt that is destined to fail, the Hellion works well enough but Electric Eye falls flat as with core style pig grunts on the verse just doesn't work and the clean vocals on the bridge bring back horrible nightmares of the Ripper Owens days (shudder). The Descendants Coffee Mug  is a nice bit of hardcore thrashage, and I'm not that familiar with the original so will refrain from making any more comments on that front.

Then we have the remix section. This starts off surprisingly enough with a medley of old AILD tracks entitled Beneath The Encasing that is pretty nifty and is probably the best track on offer on the entire album. However then things really go tits up.I have never got on with dance music, I find it messy and the inane repetitive drum pattens bring a psychotic reaction in me. It really does make me want to commit acts of brutal and bloody violence on who is ever producing the racket in order to make them stop.

I did force myself to listen to the last four tracks here to try to get a handle on them, but I only ended up feeling sick and wanting to turn the mindless crap off. If you like this sort of thing then more power to you but as for me.. I like my rock rocking and not butchered by monkeys with drum machines.

Over all this album is a bit of a waste of time if you ask me, and not one I'll be keeping in the collection or giving air time to.

for fans of... As I Lay Dying (everyone else should give this one a miss)

In Archives - 'Traitors' (self released) 3.5/5

I know I joke about it, but hardly a week goes past without a new metalcore outfit stuffing their latest offering into my inbox, and this week is no different. This time it's Peterborough noise merchants In Archives who are chancing their arm.

Now this outfit are very new, they only formed last year, although apparently their various members have been around on their local scene for a while, and as 'core stuff goes this aint to bad. Its brutal, got some nice lead guitar work, the traditional clean and dirty vocal interplay and riffs that variate from the fast as frigg to the dark and doomy. Tracks like Lost At Sea and The Oncoming Seasons are the sort of stuff that will keep your average circle pit going all night. 'Core fans will love it.

However, like a lot of the 'core that's around at the moment it is a bit formulaic and doesn't really stand out from the crowd of other 'core wannabes that are bombarding my in tray at the moment, but as long as In Archives are content to cater to their 'core audience and not seeking broader horizons, there is nothing wrong with that.

In Short - Core kids will love it, the rest may wanna try before they buy

For fans of ... Converge, Pay No Respect, The Bled, Skin The Pig

Fall Against Fate - 'If Not For Ourselves' (self released) 4.5/5

As I keep saying, there is an awful lot of quality metal core around in the UK at the moment, and the bar has been set very high by the likes of Cinderfall and Terakai etc, so it's getting hard and harder for any band in the that genre to stand out from the crowd. So next up for the high jump we have Fall Against Fate from Hertfordshire with their second album 'If Not For Ourselves'. Can they clear the bar and give us something to take notice of?

Well the good news is that not only do FAF clear said bar, but they have also raised it to a new level. This album ranks among the very best of what this genre has to off. It' powerful, intense, brutal and slick, yet at the same time shows enough invention, melody and intelligence to mark it out as something beyond the ordinary, something to hail as genre defining.

Every track here is something special, from the semi commercial melody's of So Real, to the Rolo Tomassi like Le Corps and the wonderfully titled mini epic I Hate Godzilla, He Destroys Cities (funny I love Godzilla for the same reason), each track is a real gem that entertains, brutalises, enthralls and enraptures at the same time. Amazing stuff.

So in conclusion if you like your metalcore then buy this album. And if your in a band that plays metal core pay special attention, for this is the album that sets the standard.

For fans of...  Pay No Respect, Maliface, Rolo Tomassi, Cindersfall etc...

Red Enemy - 'What We Are Contained In Is What We Are' (Invictus Music) 4/5

It's been a while since we had a band out of the Irish Republic to make us sit up and take notice, recently it's been Wales that has been the musical powerhouse of these islands. However just to remind us that the Emerald Isle is still rocking we have this rather tasty ep from Red Enemy.However don't think for a single minute that because this lot are from Eire that your gonna get Horslips style folksy shenanigans, U2 style stadium rock or even  Thin Lizzy you like jiggy hardrock. Far from it. Red Enemy play hardcore with a capital 'ard and take about as many prisoners as Brian Boru did at the Battle of Clontarf.

This five tracker is brutal to the extreme - cuts like Betrayal and No One Will Remember Our Names attack your ears and sensibilities with all the power, rage and anger of a gang of feral youths on a looting spree in Croydon. Guitar riffs bark away like machine gun fire, drums pound the ears with a relentless tattoo and over it all is some menacing growled vocalisations that spit venom and bile like the wrath of the Morrigon.

I've gotta admit I am partial to a bit of hardcore from time to time and as far as hardcore stuff goes this is one of the best debuts I've encountered in a fair while, It's tight and in your face without ever loosing control of the feeling of pent up menace the ep generates. I can see Red Enemy becoming big players in the angry world of hardcore - Highly Recommended

For fans of - Converge, The Bled, Dillinger Escape Plan etc...

Death Remains - 'A Thousand Lives' (self released) 4/5

Yup it's Brit metalcore time again, and this time it's London hopefuls Death Remains who are stepping up to the plate with this, their four track debut ep.

Now there's an awful lot of this sort of stuff around at the moment, and for any band to stand out from the hundreds of wannabes out there, they have to serve up something a little bit special, and whilst A Thousand Lives isn't exactly earth shattering, it is noteworthy enough to make peeps take notice of them. Take the second track Cincinnati Bow Tie, it bops along like most standard metalcore releases with horse growled vocals and old school thrash metal riffage at a relentlessly frenzied pit friendly pace, then suddenly it cuts to a brief section that can be only described as a sublime doom metal moment. Great stuff.

In fact all four of the tracks on offer here have some trick up their sleeve to make them stand out out from the crowd. In addition to the aforementioned Cincinnati Bow Tie; Innocence has a couple great layered harmony clean vocal sections; Diminished Responsibility also features a grind doom moment to relieve the brutality (or maybe to grind your face into the floor with) and Laid To Waste breaks up the bludgeon with some nice rhythmic variations and machine gun burst drum fills.

It remains to be seen if Death Remains can keep the interest going over more than a four track ep, but the signs are promising and I'll be keeping an eye on their progress from here on in.

In short - A worthy debut

For fans of... Malefice, Terakai, Cindersfall, Pay No Respect, etc...

Aliases - 'Safer Than Reality' (basick records) 3/5

There nothing essentially wrong with this debut release from UK progressive metalcore outfit Aliases, It's well played, ticks all the right boxes for the genre... fairly complex song structures... CHECK, shouty death grunt vocals interspersed with some melodic vocalisations... CHECK, jerky chuggy riffs with 'star burst' bits of guitar widdling... CHECK etc etc etc. In fact its a damn fine and very listenable little mini album.

It's just that as a whole this album stays a little too close to its title, and comes over more than a little safe. The complex structures just aint as complex as say Periphery, the riffage doesn't let rip in the way Terakai does, the vocals are set to stun, rather than to kill like Skin The Pig. In short each time you listen through you find the experience enjoyable rather than memorable and your wishing the experience was a little more full on, a little more intense.

You see there is a lot of this sort of stuff coming out of the UK at the moment, and a lot of it is extremely good, and whilst I can't find any real fault with Safer Than Reality, I can't find anything here to make it stand out from the crowd either. They come close in a couple of places, such as on Sirens and The Reality of Beliefs; but even those tracks tend to fall slightly short of being truly memorable.

In short... Close but no cigar

For fans of... Terakai, Skin the Pig, The Bled, Pay No Respect...