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...
