SIX OF SWORDS - Polar Vortex
May 20, 2015, 8 years ago
(Sorrow Carrier)
Toronto's Six Of Swords threaten to offer up an overflowing helping of who-cares on this four-song EP, the death-metal-inflected metalcore starting off sounding polite and predictable, but they save the day barely over a minute into opener "Separation At The Seams" when they drop eerie Meshuggah leads before a sludge crawl kicks in. So where I think this will be predictable At The Gates worshipping metalcore it actually provides more textures and hues than that, the band delivering a sound that is frustrating mainly in that it is way more enjoyable than the sum of its parts: I'm not going to convince any of my metal pals that any band is interesting anymore by namedropping Meshuggah and At The Gates, but here I am getting a huge blow of pure gut feeling out of the double-time manic speed of the title track, the Crowbarian heft of "Lock The Cell," the intense forward momentum of "Secular World."
Really, this EP is nothing but gut feeling, which is refreshing considering I used the term "metalcore" 21 words into this review. There's still a nagging feeling that you've heard it all before, but don't zone out at each individual component, because it's probably been a while since you've heard it all together this cohesively.
