Sharp End First - Rule the Day

How much more could a voice be processed so that it should be appropriate of being released? Ok, before I even start this review, I should say that all brutal parts of these guys from Southwest UK are of worst quality, just like they recorded everything else in a decent studio and used the brutal parts they had recorded when they were just testing their sound and placed them in the mix with everything else, tuning them a little bit too.. And this is just a shame because they seem to have an open-minded, evolutionary potential in the genre they chose to be a part of… The more I listen to this CD, the more I realize that there will be some people out there that, after reading this review and trying to find this CD, will completely disagree with my opinion, finding the brutal parts decent enough and come up badly for the melodic ones, as if they are much more emo-based..   Truth is I don’t even care.. Here is the stand, just comment on this.. The fact is that “Sharp End First” sound way better when writing modern metalcore melodies than pure, death hardcore, and this became even clearer when I saw that they chose to have “blinded by relief” as one of the two tracks included in the promo that came to me along with the full-length CD, hopefully that wasn’t done subconsciously.. Don’t even imagine that you‘ll  have to deal with pseudo-metal material, “Bullet for my Valentine” style (my apologies to everyone insulted), these British guys try to find themselves in a style already well-based, it’s just that this doesn’t work all the times.. There are good moments but in a genre such played, such experimental-approached like this one over the last years, it’s hard for me to say that they are something to talk about! They are for sure a decent, dynamic band but, as I usually tend to say, just up to this point, not further.. If they handle it well in a marketing point of view, they may be able to fulfill some of their dreams, but that’s it! For some reason, I do believe that there are gonna be so many better reviews for them out there, mostly based on their brutal substance, however melody is the element I believe they should count on, even if there are still many steps on the improvement road to walk on.. Anyway, you friends of the classic hardcore sound, or either you fans of this modern approach to the whole genre, I believe you should give them their chance if you happen to find their CD somewhere, we’ve given not only chances but many more to bands that worth so much less..

Stavrogiannopoulos Philippos