White Widows Pact : " True Will"

It makes sense these guys come from New York, I can't imagine scathing hard core like this coming from anywhere south of Brooklyn. It is angry, or at least sounds like angry music is supposed to sound , but life has me pretty pissed right now and it's not connecting with me in fact the second song finds ranting a little annoying. They slow down and find a lumbering groove or two, metal is this band's dna for sure. The vocals become more fitfully exasperated on "Hangman". Some of the chugged menace carries more hook to it in some places than it does in the eye of their storm. This was released back in October on New Damage Records. There is more of a wretched sludge attitude by way of Eyehategod on " This Thing of Ours" . They finally find some melody on "Intertwined", and it makes the chug they bust into that much heavier. See how that works...

The break down on " No Exit" is balanced out by the guitar solo as the album begins to make a redemptive turn for the better." Blood & Smoke" is more like the sound of a pit bull being shoved through a meat grinder, which sounds brutal at times , but how does make for a song ? The rule is still cool riffs alone does not make a good song. Even they hit you at under two minutes then it almost challenges the rule, but there are things like melody that even the hardest hard core needs, go ask Converge. The drums come rolling into "Cruel and Unusual" giving the groove some momentum. there a few notes amid the clank of the bass hitting the kick drum that give this a slight nu metal sound. All the hipsters jumping all over this because of the blogs that gave this one a reach around won't want to hear it is not too distantly related to Slipknot, but that is the truth.

The album closes on a rather tepid note with "the Watch" that really had no distinct characteristics to make the song stand out from the others. I am rounding this one down to a 6 , it has it's moments. They have a lot of energy, but most hard core bands should. I feel this one is rather flat dynamically. If you just like heavy ranting like a frothing drill Sargent from hell, then maybe this is the album for you.  I made it through the Victory Records years so I have already heard this done better by another band ten years ago. But maybe you didn't so this album is for you.