Trenches
Reckoner


3.5
great

Review

by Nikkolae USER (28 Reviews)
August 23rd, 2023 | 28 replies


Release Date: 2022 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Like ships in the night.

Many a thing can be said about a guy like Jimmy Ryan, but the one I think of the most is “Unlucky”, for it is baffling how for a guy that works so hard and puts so much effort on all his projects, be it his tenure in Haste the Day or here, he never really seem to get the exposure they, in my opinion, rightfully deserve.

Which brings me to the most frustrating aspect of Trenches, which is that they are, by all metrics, one of the most unique and innovative bands that has ever been deemed with the “core” suffix, as I still struggle to find any other band that is even close to replicate such a unique blend of Post-Metal and Metalcore in such a spectacular fashion.

Praise be where its due, The Tides Will Swallow us Whole was, at its time, an amazing palate cleanser, firmly set on doing its own thing back in 2008, here most of the Core scene was moving towards more technical wankery and/or outright arena rock, it was surprising even to find an album so set in its ways that it refused to acknowledge any of the current trends and looked back to what a different breed of metalcore could be, and then, there was nothing.

14 years, that’s how long it took for Reckoner to be released, so what's new?

Honestly? Not much, which is about as good as it gets, let it not be misunderstood, Trenches are pissed, have remained pissed, and seemingly will continue to be pissed for as long as they release music. No time is wasted as Wrecking Age kicks the doors in and goes all out with Ryans trademark bark, however, about the halfway mark the song shifts to a more spacey ambient track and slowly fades out, all of this in the span of 1:19 minutes.

This will become a recurring aspect of this album as it will continue to play with the textures of long spacey post-metal outros, all carried by an insanely brutal and beautiful Rythm section, it’s quite refreshing to hear such established Metal tropes juxtaposed with Ryan and Co. Firing on all cylinders with the most straight-up Metalcore riffs and melodies.

Songs of particular notice are The Tides that Bind and The Death of all Mammoths, the former of which, in my opinion, is a worthy successor of the best riff this band has put out ever since Tip the Landmine came out, as it is choppy and dissonant and leaves no room to breathe, just a barrage of open string picking pummelling the listener, and the latter one being the sweet release, as it has some of the most complex and technical drumming in the record while keeping an insanely oppressive atmosphere.

This however, does not mean the album is without fault, as the band tends to seem to lose its footing around the midway mark, the most egregious example of this being Lenticular Clouds as it is a pretty dull post metal track that really adds not much to what has already been laid out by the band at this point and meanders for most of its runtime, which seems to be the Achilles heel of this band, as they seem unsure as to how to position the post-metal aspect their sound within the songs themselves (it also does not help that it is one of the longest tracks in the record)

All in all, it is a fair assessment to say that Jimmy Ryan and Co. Have put out an insanely fun album, that hits all the marks of what their project under Trenches strives to be, however, it seems that they are also starting to tread water with their sound, which is in my opinion, unacceptable when it takes the better part of a decade and a half to put out an album.



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user ratings (146)
3.6
great


Comments:Add a Comment 
Nikkolae
August 23rd 2023


6764 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off

seeing that all the bands i rec'd on the side are all dead is really bumming, criticism welcome yadda yadda

Ecnalzen
August 23rd 2023


12167 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

Heck yea, this has got a review now. Very nice

sspedding
August 23rd 2023


5726 Comments


Jimmy Ryan is the OG

JWT155
August 23rd 2023


14975 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Great album.

Purpl3Spartan
August 23rd 2023


9033 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

this didnt resonate with me much on release but I need to come back to it



pos

Minortimbo12
August 23rd 2023


1648 Comments


why does this remind me of juice wrld

Pikazilla
August 23rd 2023


31308 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

fantastic album

FearThyEvil
August 23rd 2023


18832 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

album definitely goes hard

pizzamachine
August 23rd 2023


27708 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

Four tracks in, i love it

Sevengill
August 23rd 2023


12551 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off

been waiting for this since high school. it didn't disappoint.

calmrose
August 23rd 2023


7027 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

nice, finally a review for this

Nikkolae
August 23rd 2023


6764 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off

album sure is fun but it just makes me appreciate TTWSUW even more

HeadbangMastermind93
August 24th 2023


702 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Damn I'm excited to peep this

Emim
August 24th 2023


36155 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Those recommended albums are goated. Time To Burn is so good

HeadbangMastermind93
August 24th 2023


702 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Also, Knut ❤️

Nikkolae
August 24th 2023


6764 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off

Knut is truly the goat of all goats

pizzamachine
August 24th 2023


27708 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

I like how this album isn’t super average yet still has a retro sound imo

Space Jester
August 24th 2023


11322 Comments


Pretty good review, except I don’t really agree with Jimmy Ryan being the main name attached to the band as he only really came in towards the end to record the vocals. Jimmy might be the most well-known but Joel Lauver is the one who’s been writing and producing all the music and getting it off the ground

JeetJeet
August 24th 2023


12461 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Glad this bad boy has a review. Its pretty fucking awesome.

Senetrix666
August 24th 2023


1658 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off

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