THOUGHTCRIMES – ALTERED PASTS
Formed by former Dillinger Escape Plan drummer Billy Rymer and guitarist Russ Savarese, the long time friends are joined in Thoughtcrimes by vocalist Rick Pepa, guitarist Brian Sullivan and bass player Cody Hosza. The presence of Rymer is likely to be the biggest draw initially and fans of Dillinger are likely to love this.
Mostly, the music is a snarling, raging, ugly, heavy as hell mash-up of hardcore and mathcore and it is wonderfully, gut-wrenchingly cathartic. There are also moments of melody and gentle beauty. Named after a style of prison architecture, Panopticon is as heavy as the name suggests. Mirror Glue has a soaring chorus and an all too brief coldwave interlude. New Infinities has a doom metal opening before going goth-metal, bringing to mind Paradise Lost circa Gothic or a slowed down, heavied up Rasmus (both of which are very good things indeed). Despite the intense, rattling drums it still the most melodic track on the album. Dare I Say smashes old-school thrash into technical death metal. Hai Un Accendino (Italian for Do You Have A Lighter!?!) features spoken word vocals from poet Michael Clarityover Amenra-meets-envy post-metalcore. Deathbed Confessions adds an orchestral backing to brutal riffing, raging vox and thunderous drums whilst closer Lunar Waves brings clean vocals and post-rock instrumentation.
As thrilling as this is on the first few listens, after repeated plays it gets a bit wearing. A few more of those less intense, more melodic moments would give some welcome relief. Whatever, this is a decent first album and I bet they slay live.
7/10
