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Texas In July

Texas In July

Written by: PP on 26/12/2012 19:58:39

For their third album, Texas In July have opted to go self-titled, perhaps as a statement that this is the sound we are to expect from them in the future. If so, it's ironic, really, considering how blatant of a rip-off it is off August Burns Red, but then again, they pull of the standard technical metalcore sound convincingly enough for that not to matter in the long run. So for a 30 minute bout of straight up metalcore following in the footsteps of ABR as well as All That Remains and As I Lay Dying to top things off, "Texas In July" does its job reasonably well.

The way it achieves a favourable rating despite a cloned sound is through blazing lead riffs that display incredible technical prowess all the way through. The fretwork is mesmerizing at times, with the riffage in for example "Cry Wolf" being enough to raise the hairs on the back of even the biggest metalcore skeptics out there. The same technical onslaught continues on "Shallow Point" and, well, pretty much throughout the album, which is good, given that the lead guitar work is the highlight of the album.

Those of you who had the chance to check out their previous album "One Reality" last year may take note of the lacking atmospherics, which came to define that album. They've been pushed largely to the background to make room for a more conventional metalcore approach. Consequently, "Texas In July" is as straight up as metalcore comes with roared vocals (no cleans, though), brief breakdowns, dynamic riffing, and the whole lot, but it's lacking that extra dimension that the brief periods of ambience gave its predecessor.

It's worth getting just for its leads and the guest performances by Chadwick Johnson of Hundredth, Dave Stephens of We Came As Romans, and Matt Greiner of August Burns Red (on "Without A Head", "C4", and "Cloudy Minds" respectfully), but don't expect it to top off the year-end lists.

Download: Cry Wolf, Shallow Point, Bed Of Nails
For the fans of: All That Remains, August Burns Red, Miss May I, As I Lay Dying
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Release date 09.10.2012
Equal Vision Records