Copse : "MMXXIV"

Bristol's answer to Deafheaven is my suspicion going into this album, lets see if they prove me wrong. About two and a half minutes into the first song, I am proven right. Sure there are some slight variations on this theme, but it's more slight than what someone like Infant Island busted out. There are some cool palm-muted riffs, but the rule here is "Cool Riffs alone does not a good song make". The vocals have a little more screamo to them and less of the black metal malice. 'Mondrem" makes more of an effort to establish its own identity, but still, it's within a sub-genre that one band has heavily dominated. When they steer clear of the more overt blasting and tropes of this sub-genre their songwriting is on better footing. 

There is an interlude, that is about two minutes that I am disregarding for the purpose of this review. 'Old Belief" does not really tap into any new ground. The sweeping chord progressions work for the song and the frantic drumming is what is expected from this sort of thing, but I do not feel like they are not going above and beyond, which leaves them to play it safe in a genre that should celebrate extremes. It does not suck, but I want to know, why I should listen to this album instead of an album by someone who does this better and they are not making enough of an argument for what sets them apart,

The last song is almost 15 minutes. I am waiting to hear what is going to justify this or is it going to be a self-indulgent sprawl. The first two minutes cut be trimmed down as the song does not really start until the vocals come in. They use actual singing here, which is something they would be wise to expand on as it's better than the screamed vocals as it gives them more identity, maybe that identity is not as heavy as the band they want to portray but maybe that is who they really are. I think giving this album an 8, is fair, with the last song playing into them scoring this high. 

pst614