Missouri is not one of the places I picture hardcore coming from. What I like about the city's hard-core export is that Covert takes me back to the late 80s when thrash and hard-core crossed over. At least on the first two songs. The first song perhaps works the best as what they are doing is still fresh and new. Once we are a few songs in and they are thrashing at the old-school tempo,. with the forcefully narrated vocals that are not quite a shout, begin to sound a little uniform so even the predictable moshy breakdowns work well.
Things do get more melodic guitar-wise on "Siege Upon the City". Granted they are checking off most of the boxes for most of the tropes at this point. "Units Desimmenated" races for your throat with the rabid fury of youth. Not the most original thing, but it's heartfelt. The lyrics seem deliberate without being preachy. I can not stand when hardcore bands try to take some kind of moral high ground. They are back to being pretty straightforward with their attack on "They Will Not Stop":
"Fallen" is just more of the same, and kind of falls into the speed trap of being fast, but also feeling like they are rushing the song. You can catchy maybe half the lyrics, and the riffs are pretty generic. There are a few cool riffs, but the rule here is cool riffs alone does not a good song make, and this song is a great example of that. "Alone" works better than half the songs here, as things slow down and allow you to hear their purpose rather than racing by you before you can discern it. The vocals are pretty much a one-trick pony, but it is often where he puts his phrases that work in his favor. I will keep an ear out for these guys as they have a great deal of potential. This album is not perfect, but it shows you where they are growing, though the base line is already better than most. I round this album's score down to an 8.5, which is still better than most bands, and puts this as one of the better hard-core albums so far this year.
pst141
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