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Sons Of Death Valley

The Day Of Reckoning

Written by: PP on 11/02/2014 00:02:00

It has been about two years since The Revolt Of Darwin called it a day, taking with them one of the few quality southern fried hardcore bands in Denmark. With the addition of Sons Of Death Valley from Copenhagen featuring Dan Christensen on vocals (from said band), fans of western-themed hardcore tunes can now breathe a sigh of relief as their debut album "The Day Of Reckoning" fills the void of ferocious hardcore groove that's been largely missing in the country for a while now.

Basically, think a combination of the fired-with-all-cylinders approach of Revolt Of Darwin, and add a few Southern grooves from early Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster material, with plenty of piercing aggression in the vein of Every Time I Die and you've summed up Sons Of Death Valley nicely. It's an uncompromising sound definitely not for the faint-hearted as their vocalist screams his way throughout the album in a manner that can only be described as menacing. His razor-sharp scream is as convincing as it is full of urgency; the expression itself, aside from the occasional guitar grooves, is as chaotic and all-over-the-place as you'd expect from a genre so closely aligned with mathcore. On a slower song like "Dark Days", the fiery ETID influence shows in particular, whereas a song like "Mexican Standoff" features some subtle melody making these two the highlight songs on the record.

Yes, it can feel a little monotonous in the end because of the relentless scream that varies very little throughout the record, but on the other hand the elevated aggression levels make up for it, and writing an occasional great song doesn't hurt either. That said, despite it's strengths, the record needs more songs like "Dark Days" and "Cutter Throat" before it can captivate as a whole. There's enough strong material here though to make it absolutely worthwhile for any southern fried hardcore fan to get their fix, even if it's not among the absolute highlights this year.

Download: Mexican Standoff, Dark Days, Cutter Throat
For the fans of: Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster, Every Time I Die, The Revolt Of Darwin
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Release date 27.12.2013
Self-Released