Imperial

We Sail At Dawn (Pluto)
by Scott Hefflon

Florida roarcore produced by a guy who’s worked with Poison the Well, Remembering Never, and Strongarm. Running into battle and stomping around in the mud are the two paces present, scattered clean vocals that don’t fit, and an occasional moments of beauty-through-brutality amidst all the formulaic metalcore. The inclusion of piano and strings at the end smack of “see, we’re not morons” just like the clean vocals, and they don’t impress much, seeing as they’d be first drafts to anyone really into this kinda thing. Breaks up the knuckledragging, but they should write 100 more tender songs, scrap 85 of them as first draft crap, then release a 15-song CD showing their sensitive side, once it’s more developed.

Again, a few rare moments of beauty here, when the stupid riff’n’roar transcends the obvious and becomes art. Most of this CD makes me feel dumber having sat through it, but there are glimmers of drone which almost make it worth it. The band probably can’t tell the difference or they wouldn’t done it more, but four or five times, I held by breath, like glorious passages in Strapping Young Lad songs.
(www.plutorecords.com)