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As My World Burns

Mistakes Art Gallery

Written by: PP on 01/11/2012 22:35:38

"Mistakes Art Gallery" is the sophomore EP by the Spanish metalcore band As My World Burns. Or perhaps calling them a metalcore band isn't quite accurate, because the band visits and revisits a number of different genres and styles across their EP, leaving an inconsistent and slightly odd impression on its listener once the whole ordeal is done.

For starters, the band opens with a seven minute progressive metalcore piece "Dali Carried A Melting Clock In His Pocket", which melts into a clean post-hardcore style chorus every now and then. Immediately after we're into aggressive thrash-inspired metalcore on "Like Scavenger Birds Playing Poker", which is immediately more anonymous and generic mostly due to the monotonous vocals that drop from screaming to just thrash metal style yelling. Not good. Here, too, the Bullet For My Valentine style cleans are what save the song, but otherwise the song is plagued by too many clichés of the metalcore genre to be good.

Then something odd happens: "And That's Why Personal Deep Conversations Never Have A Happy Ending" shifts the band into Linkin Park style nu-metal, mostly because of the semiclean vocals that closely resemble Chester Bennington. Of course it's slightly heavier during the verses where the metalcore riffs raise their ugly head, but during the rest of the song it is impossible to shake off the Linkin Park reference from your head because the melody is almost straight off "Hybrid Theory". Later on, the band delves into Envy style post-metal for brief moments, before going back to piecing together elements from both metalcore and nu-metal in equal measure. And aside from the shoddy production that has left the vocals far too unpolished in general, that's the biggest problem with the EP. It bounces all over the place without focusing on a red thread, a single sound that'd be the driving force throughout the record. When your thoughts bounce from Avenged Sevenfold to Linkin Park during the course of just a six track EP, it's usually a signal that the songwriting isn't yet on a level it must be to attract international attention. It's not a bad start, but compared to the established names in the genre, it does feel a tad bit amateurish.

Download: And That's Why Personal Deep Conversations Never Have A Happy Ending
For the fans of: Linkin Park meets Avenged Sevenfold
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Release date 27.01.2012
Self-Released