Undawn
Justice Is...

While Killswitch Engage desperately tried to revive the ol’ metalcore corpse earlier this year, I have stumbled across a late 2015 release that just showed up in my mail box that deserves as much attention as Incarnate. And truthfully, I’m enjoying Justice is… a hell of a lot more than I did Incarnate.

Confidently straddling the line between metalcore and European melodic death metal , Dutch act Undawn (formerly known as Symphony of Destruction) will make most readers of this site curl their toes in rage. However, those that enjoy some catchy, dual vocalled, gang chant filled, energetic metalcore with  a big production, big hooks and plenty of clean vocals will enjoy this under the radar number. In fact, The vocals of Michiel Brinkhuis, will be the sticking point for most. He has a sort of half shout/scream and some ok-ish clean croons. However, musically everything else is on point. I’d go so far as even saying, there is a few really good tracks on here.

First up, second track “What Justice Is?” , is down right killer. A big bouncy main riff, a melodic hook, yes, a breakdown,  and a big brash chorus that even the most grizzled metal head would involuntarily tap his booted feet too. “A Bond of Brothers”, a more balladic number has a killer little segue  and solo around 4 minutes in to close the track out in real style. Bjorn Strid of Soilwork helps out on “Never Giving Up” and adds his smooth voice to an already solid track.

A few missteps like the ballad “Forever” which is bit too cliched, and “closer “Puppets of Heresy” is a bit to rigid to the metal core paradigm ( do we really need another song with the infamous  Howard Beale “I want you to get mad” quote?) could be a KSE song, so take that as you will. Still, a surprisingly little release in a genre that really needs  the kiss of life right now. I’m not sure Undawn has it, but they are giving it a go.

[Visit the band's website]
Written by Erik T
June 24th, 2016

Comments

Leave a Reply

Privacy notice: When you submit a comment, your creditentials, message and IP address will be logged. A cookie will also be created on your browser with your chosen name and email, so that you do not need to type them again to post a new comment. All post and details will also go through an automatic spam check via Akismet's servers and need to be manually approved (so don't wonder about the delay). We purge our logs from your meta-data at frequent intervals.

  • Chaos Invocation - Wherever We Roam....
  • Ad Vitam Infernal - Le ballet des anges
  • Thy Catafalque - XII: A gyönyörű álmok ezután jönnek (Twelve: The Beautiful Dreams Are Yet to Come)
  • Aara - Eiger
  • Mammoth Grinder - Undying Spectral Resonance EP
  • Wretched Fate - Incineration of the Pious EP
  • Kaivs - After the Flesh
  • Witnesses - Joy
  • Mythbegotten - Tales from the Unseelie Court
  • Worm Shepherd - Hunger
  • Chained to the Dead - Only Hunger Remains EP
  • Entheos - An End to Everything EP
  • Trollwar - Tales From the Frozen Wastes EP
  • Gigan - Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus
  • Whispering Void - At the Sound of the Heart