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Patriarchs

Emerge

Written by: PP on 10/12/2009 19:48:39

More scene stuff your way, folks! Today we're moving quite a bit south of the Canadian border though, as this review will discuss Christian post-hardcore / metalcore hopefuls Patriarchs from Tampa, Florida, who have been stirring up some buzz with their debut album "Emerge" despite still being unsigned for some incomprehensible reason. The reason I say incomprehensible is because it's been a while since I've encountered as professionally written and recorded release as "Emerge" without label support. And the songs are excellent, too, especially if you're into the style of modern metalcore guitars that leans heavily toward the early pioneers Shai Hulud.

Fact is, "Emerge" sounds exactly like a page off the Misery Signals playbook with the exception that it's way more melodic (every song is like "The Failsafe") and it contains some emotionally charged clean vocals that are sparsely used to create a nice contrast. Particularly "Mountains" impresses me with its ethereal, floating instrumental passages that are contrasted by solid, powerful screams and a remarkably 'full' sound. Vocalist David deserves a big pat on the back here as his thick screams are what really makes Patriarchs interesting, even if he does sound noticeably similar to the dude from Misery Signals. When you couple his scream together with chunky and heavy instrumentals, which aren't focusing on out-heavying the entire scene with unnecessary breakdowns (hello The Devil Wears Prada) and the sort, you've once again got a distinct melodic flow to the music similar to the one I was talking about in my The Jettison Commitment review. Yeah, there are breakdowns on "Emerge", but they are carefully used as not to break the flow of the music. When they eventually arrive, they're usually at the beginning or the end of the song to give the track a grand heavy finale, rather than to provide karate moshers a reason to unnecessarily cause bodily harm to their fellow concert goers. The rarity of song-breaking beatdowns is indeed what makes listening to "Emerge" such a rich endeavour.

The attentive listener will also notice parallels between Patriarchs and a band like August Burns Red or Life In Your Way, though not to the same extent as Misery Signals, and especially towards the end of the album, Shai Hulud. "Freedom" and "Ambitions" come first into when thinking about the latter thanks to their angular guitars that have just the right degree of melody to them to keep them heavy and catchy synchronously. "Emerge" may not be reinventing the wheel, but for someone more into the older post-hardcore / metalcore bands than the ones from the recent wave, it comes across as a fresh fruit record in a sea of rotten apples. Watch these guys closely.

Download: Mountains, Hope, Freedom
For the fans of: Misery Signals, August Burns Red, Shai Hulud, Life In Your Way
Listen: Myspace

Release date 07.08.2009
Unsigned Band