Label: Animals Mosh Harder Records
Release date: April 13, 2020
Album length: 40:03 min
Genre: metalcore
For a few years now, the Austrian scene has been trying to convince everyone that it’s strong in metalcore too. Plenty of people probably remember the promising The Sorrow, who put out a handful of albums and gained international recognition. Quite a few bands were born in The Sorrow’s wake. Going by the live scene, metalcore is a pretty big deal in Austria. Among the more promising bands are We Blame The Empire.
The young band from the small town of Vöcklabruck already showed some potential with their debut “These waves won’t take me” in 2017, and this year they’ve announced their second album, Aero. It naturally continues their mission, while also aiming to be a step up from the debut.
So Aero offers 10 tracks spread over roughly 40 minutes. The song Updraft hits with no brakes, as an opener should. You get associations with As I Lay Dying, August Burns Red, Betraying The Martyrs and the like. It’s pretty destructive, with no clean vocals yet. But the melodic side already shows through in the guitar and the electronic touches. It’s clear that We Blame the Empire want to sound as modern as possible. But it’s hard to judge from one song.
Already on the second track, Revelations, the aggression gets a counterweight in the form of clean vocals, contributed by guitarist Moritz Osterer. It’s a pretty standard metalcore tune, which could work as a music video thanks to its standout chorus. But the next track, Decisions, is there to highlight the softer side even more, with the chorus pushed even further to the front. They bring back more punch with the song Impact, which, with its catchy chorus again, makes it feel like the band took a lot of cues from some renowned American metalcore act, like As I Lay Dying and the like.
Sure, We Blame The Empire stick to one style, but you have to admit they’re pretty dynamic. Bringing in various electronic extras and keyboards adds some variety, and above all lets the emotional side come through that much more. A good example is the song Distress Call. In the second half of the album, the emotional side seems to be even more pronounced. There are more clean vocals, which really come into their own in, say, Stay With Me, where the emotion is boosted further by a piano outro. The album doesn’t close with a bang, but in the gentlest way possible with the acoustic Silent Throne.
Despite the strong emotional component, the lyrics also turn to social criticism and environmental issues, which has become a pretty pressing topic in recent years and one that many bands are speaking out about.
We Blame The Empire will above all thrill fans of modern metalcore with their second album. The record boasts a good dose of punch, melody, emotion and electronic touches. The modern sound picture matches. There’s definitely potential for the band to reach a bigger share of listeners, as long as they show some persistence and creativity, of course.
Tracklist:
- Updraft (04:05)
- Revelations (04:10)
- Decisions (03:56)
- Impact (3:43)
- Distress Call (03:45)
- Showdown (03:47)
- Stay with Me (04:33)
- Innervision (03:45)
- Pathways (04:08)
- Silent Throne (Acoustic) (04:07)
Lineup:
Sebastian “Borsti” Penninger – vocals
Moritz “Moli” Osterer – guitar, vocals
Dominik Bucar – bass
Lukas “Prilli” Prielinger – drums
