http://youtu.be/nhtoLKEfH34
…a slab of high standard metalcore
Review by Dan O’Brien
Release date: 28 October 2014
Consistency can be a curse for a bands career. In some cases it can be the making of a band, allowing them to build a die-hard fan base determined to hear the band do the same product over and over again but content with this by claiming if it broke don’t fix it. In some other cases though it can be a bands downfall leading to them becoming seen as the band who never evolved and stuck to their one idea, riding it for as much as its worth.
I fear a band like Unearth are viewed in that secondary camp, for their decade or so in the business they have done little to evolve their sound past their signature sound of danceable beatdowns intertwined with in your face meat and potatoes metalcore. This is one of the sad cases in the metal world, because if there is one band that deserve to be so much bigger and respected as they are it is most certainly Unearth. In short, they have sort of become the Exodus of Metalcore.
Throughout their five previous albums, the band has been providing some of the finest metalcore produced in the genre and their new album Watchers Of Rule is absolutely no different. Will it change the world of metal? No of course not, will it change even the world of metalcore? Again sadly no, but for fans of what this band do Watchers Of Rule is yet again another solid metalcore album.
Packing all the signature break and beatdowns one would expect from an Unearth album, the record doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel but rather celebrates exactly what make Unearth work and does it well. The album has some of the best riffs and beatdowns the band have written since back in the Zombie Autopilot days, the album also seems to have a bit for urgency than their last album Darkness In The Light as well as packing slightly higher quality songs and riffs.
Watchers Of Rule is what can only be described as being another Unearth album, but in truth at this point would you want anything else? As all Unearth albums are, this one is a slab of metalcore done to a high standard and if you’re a fan then you would want nothing more than what has been delivered.
7 out of 10
Track Listing:
- Watcher Of Rule Tracklisting:
- Intro
- The Swarm
- Lifetime In Ruins
- From The Tombs Of Five Below
- Guards Of Contagion
- Never cease
- Trail To Fire
- To The Ground
- Burial Lines
- Birth Of A Legion
- Watchers Of Rule
- Throes Of Remission
- Spirit Of Black
