Unearth
The Stings of Conscience

THE REVIEW

Disclaimer... If you like hardcore metal and its derivatives, this CD is made just for you...
Another disclaimer... If you still believe in "true" metal, this CD and this review are not for you.
In perfect Pennsylvania MetalCore style...

On the first listen, you are truly struck by the power of the "ENORMOUS" guitars tuned in B that overpower any other instrument, crushing everything like bulldozers. The chugging parts present in every song, sometimes in multiple sections, can demolish 20-story buildings... and I'm not kidding...
Although often overshadowed by the guitars, the drummer is skilled at giving the right touch to the tracks with consistently accurate and almost never out-of-style strokes.
Unfortunately, the flaw of this genre is the total absence of bass ... it's there, but you don't hear it ...
The singing (so to speak...) is all in scream, often with RAP hints coming from more hardline hardcore.

Needless to say, many elements of the album are taken from Scandinavian melodic death metal bands, even if they're able to remix everything in a NY hardcore style.
The album consists of 10 tracks: it opens with My heart bleeds no longer, 3:36 of pure power, and concludes with Stronghold, a not-so-exceptional track.
Not all tracks are formidable; some like Stings of conscience, Monition, Stronghold, and Vanishment are quite trite and monotonous... the feeling is of needing to change the track after the first 30 seconds due to boredom, but there are the other 6 tracks that are a true masterpiece of metalcore, intense, powerful, and full of anger and emotion... yes! I said emotion.

In conclusion... In my opinion, it's an album from a band in growth, obviously it doesn't have the maturity of The Oncoming Storm but still remains a pretty valid album worthy of more listens.