There’s been an almost Bring Me the Horizon/Bullet For My Valentine like buzz in the British media about this Brighton metalcore act and their third release- on Century Media records no less. However, after absorbing Hollow Crown for a while, it’s really nothing too special in the realms of noisy, occasionally melodic metalcore/hardcore and nothing you can’t find on Victory Records.

Albeit armed with a very sturdy production that highlights the band’s heftier moments, the end result musically is still nothing more than an amalgamation of their obvious US peers, ranging from Converge to Breach to Thursday to Poison the Well. Crunchy discordance blends with moments of verse chorus melodies and the expected vocal delivery of harsh screams, emo clean croons and occasional gang chants.

As a metalcore/hardcore album there’s nothing really wrong with Hollow Crown, it’s just that I’ve heard it all before and I’ve heard it done better by their US counterparts (not to make this a UK vs USA thing). None of the 12 songs really dug their teeth into me and may be pay attention, though occasional moments of moody, crumbling girth (“Early Grave”, “Follow the Water”, “We’re Not Alone” and urgent “Borrowed Time”) were pleasing as far as the genre is concerned, but nothing to pull me back to the album beyond review purposes.

There are a couple of introspective moments that surface in “In Elegance” and the closing title track (a somber ballad) but they are not over used as Architects generally keep things pretty noisy, but they still serve to show the band’s reliance on the genres requisites and clichés. As a result, I’m far more likely to reach for the US’s Architect for my noisy hardcore instead.

[Visit the band's website]

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