Review Summary: The Crimson Armada release a strong competitor for worst album of the year.
Columbus, Ohio gets a deservedly bad rap for its musical output. Being the birthplace as bands such as Attack Attack! and every wannabe Risecore band has made the local scene devoid of any potential. That is why The Crimson Armada’s 2009 release, Guardians, had stuck with me so well. While there was some hardcore influence, it was a death metal album with At the Gates style riffing and some unique (if not disturbing) vocals. It had seemed like the band had broken free of Columbus style crapcore until a new song was posted late last year. Gone were the scathingly high and bastardly low vocals, the death metal riffing, and the potential the band had showed on its first release.
The band’s vocalist had claimed the old album was plagiarism; the band had ripped off old death metal riffs and presented them as their own. Conviction would be completely new and original material. While the claims sound promising, this album fails on just about every level.
To start, every song opens with a breakdown except the quick interlude track “Relief”. This band, much like Emmure, has made use of the Inception breakdown. The song will open with what appears to be a perfectly average and mediocre chugging pattern with the average God-fearing chant on top, until a perfectly timed bass drop will kick you into an even heavier, slower breakdown of the exact same pattern. This is the Inception breakdown: a breakdown within a breakdown. While a quick chugging verse or chorus may spell a bit of relief, there is no escaping another bass drop and another kick deeper into breakdown limbo.
The clean singing added on this album sounds comparable to Miss May I’s whiny, nasally vocals and adds nothing except spacing and filler to the songs. Other non-harsh vocals added on the album include horrendous spoken-word build ups such as the opening of “Composed of Stone”, where the vocals escalate much like Frankie Palmeiri of Emmure’s. The words escalate the phrase “I’ll put the fear of God in you” which is not only one of the most pretentious phrases ever written, it also doesn’t work in any setting. A vocalist such as Mattie Montgomery of For Today has a 6’6” frame, the build of an NFL Defensive Lineman, and has the type of commanding presence to (possibly) pull off Christ-core chants like that. Unfortunately, when a 5’4”, 90 lb. man immures it in your ears, it’s hard not to laugh.
The vocals also make excessive use of rapping, taking on a nu-metalcore style similar to the aforementioned Emmure. Rather than explaining why it’s bad, I’ll just move on.
The band has dropped the piano interludes from the first album and incorporated a much more fitting Attack Attack! style key sound, that adds little except an overlaying sound to chugging patterns throughout the album. The synth and key sounds don’t add anything to the new vocal style. The basic metalcore vocals have been adopted with only slight traces of the formerly scathing highs. For whatever reason the highs are now layered with the mid range vocals, effectively removing any of the punch they had.
I can’t really imagine any reason to listen to this, except to realize how great the rest of your musical collection is in comparison. The track “Composed of Stone” could be the worst song of the year. The track is 3:44 of pure transition from one breakdown to the next and includes plenty of rapping and vomit-inducing lyrics. Avoid this one at all costs.
