Review Summary: A new tyrant of deathcore.
With the growing emergence of space themed deathcore bands, perhaps spawned by bands such as The Faceless and The Contortionist, and now capitalized on by artists like Rings of Saturn, it seems that Brisbane outfit Aversions Crown intend to carve out a place for themselves. Since releasing their debut record
Servitude almost four years ago, Aversions Crown had mostly kept their follow up release under wraps, that is until now. The band has finally unleashed
Tyrant onto the modern deathcore scene, and, while not breaking many boundaries, proves to be a release that manages to capitalize effectively on all of the genre’s strengths and improve on a few in the process.
One glance at
Tyrant’s artwork will give prospective listeners a pretty clear clue as to what this album revolves around. Namely, an alien invasion, further evidenced by track titles such as “Earth Steriliser” and “Xenoforms”. Through all the rapid blast beats and crushing breakdowns, Aversions Crown weaves tales of extraterrestrial life and destruction at the hands of advanced technology. All the while the music creates an ominous tapestry for the lyrics to advance over. While the music is very much similarly themed to the previous bands I’ve mentioned, the music lies within a region somewhat less technical than Rings of Saturn and demonstrates none of the progressive tendencies of The Contortionist. The technicality is most definitely there to a degree, blast beats and rapid tremolo picking being staples of the band’s sound, but there is a much greater emphasis on heavy grooves and dark atmospheres. In fact the atmosphere is much of what makes the record stand out, and proves that the artwork and lyrics aren’t the only reasons I label this space themed.
Opener “Hollow Planet” sets the album off on a high note, beginning not with a breakdown as many deathcore bands might have, but with some blisteringly higher register tremolo lines. When the inevitable breakdown does appear, it absolutely destroys rather than bores. Every song demonstrates a similar level of entertainment and execution, which is good in a way, but at the same time
Tyrant suffers slightly from a lack of variety. Moments like the intro to “Conqueror”, with a melodic intro that is actually beautiful rather than ominous, vary things up slightly, but this feeling of being “one note” is the album’s greatest flaw. Regardless, all the songs remain top tier spacey deathcore that, while short on breathing room, is not short on enjoyment.
Instrumentally, the band is quite proficient by the standards of the genre. The pace remains frantic throughout, absenting some slower and deeply groove oriented sections, and the drums shine as a result. The needed blasting is excellently executed and the drums are all around quite well performed. The guitars balance technical riffs with the low end chugging quite well, even if the latter is a tad bit too common. The bass is sadly forgotten, buried in the low end, but it doesn’t detract too much in the grand scheme of things. Vocally, Aversions Crown have found an excellently varied frontman. High shrieks and low gutturals are the name of the game, but he employs some sparingly used vocal layering and a strong mid-range roar as well to great effect. His lyrics are, for the most part, well written and filled with sci-fi vocabulary, although he throws around profanity a bit much. All in all, the band is firing on most cylinders.
Tyrant proves to be a breath of fresh air into Australia’s deathcore scene, one that may set a standard for underground bands to come. Despite a few flaws, this is an enjoyable and extremely well executed release that was quite some time in the making. Aversions Crown certainly have their work cut out for them trying to top
Tyrant, but for now deathcore fans are quite well equipped for the wait.
