Gray State : "Under the Wheels of Progress"

From Finland comes this very metal take on hardcore. It opens with an instrumental track, and foreboding might be the best way to describe its mood. The rapid-fire second song is joined by scathing vocals that are not unlike the scowl of disgust, Starkweather uses. There is more groove to "The Death of True Love" . The very melodic guitar solo is a really nice touch It combines the kind of classic metal playing combined with hard-core aggression that I have not heard since the first Shadows Fall album. It is what metal core genre should sound like. 

This is not to say they do not play into the tropes of hardcore with the under stomp of "Desire for Salvation" . These guys are great guitarists so that is what keeps pulling them back in a metal direction even when they are trying harder for something with more of a punk feel. They also know how to bring the riffs on "Ashes of Burning Worlds". It should make for brutal karate chopping pits if that is what is going down in Finland these days. 

 "Flaw in a Mortal Machine" is driven by a more thrashing energy, until they slow down for the more spoken motivational hard-core vocal Tedtalk to come into play. They do not shy from guitar solos even in these moments,. and I am fine with that. The riffs get a little Slayer in places.  They continue to rage down a similar path, though the bass grinds in to anchor it. There is more punk in the veins of "Lifeblood". The last song feels like it could have come from Life of Agony's "The River Runs Red", which is one of my favorite albums so fine by me.  I will give this album a 9 and see how it grows on me one of the better hardcore album so far this year.  

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