Metalcore annoys me. With so many amazing metal bands out there, and an equal number of killer hardcore bands, it baffles me that when putting the two together it more often than not produces mediocre results. Too often a metalcore band starts off more like a traditional hardcore band, then over the course of just a few albums they progress more toward the metal end of the spectrum. The problem with this is it doesn’t sound like a natural evolution. It seems too forced, like the band members took courses at Metalcore University, but didn’t study hard enough. The course schedule looking somewhat like this prior to them dropping out:

Semester 1: Hardcore For Dummies
Semester 2: Metal Riffs and Scales: The Basics
Semester 3: Metal Riffs and Scales: The Basics
Semester 4: Metal Riffs and Scales: The Basics
Semester 5: Metalcore: The Theory of Cookie-Cutter Songwriting

Extracurricular: St. Anger: The Greatest Metal Album of All-Time
Extracurricular: Solos Are Gay
Extracurricular: Breakdowns? Fuck yes! Every song!
Extracurricular: Solos Are Gay II

Unearth have pretty much followed this same pattern over the course of two EPs and two full-lengths prior to this, their third full-length, III: In The Eyes Of Fire. This, of course, is not necessarily a bad thing. I’ll always maintain that a good song is a good song regardless of the ingredients or the manner in which it was written. So, while offering nothing special in terms of metalcore, Unearth haven’t completely come up short. To their credit, one thing that Unearth avoids is the standard screaming verse, cleanly-sung chorus, which, given the success of their last album, The Oncoming Storm, would have been an easy cash-grab maneuver. In fact, there are no cleanly-sung vocals to be found on this album.

III: In The Eyes Of Fire starts off strong with “The Glorious Nightmare,” a standard metalcore tune, but a great one. “Giles,” the lead-off single, is another great tune: aggressive, heavy, and dynamic. “Sanctity Of Brothers” is another killer track—my favorite on the album. The first twenty-five seconds of “This Time Was Mine” is pure speed/power metal, however it quickly dives back down into the muck of metalcore cliché, but remains a great song. At this point, with four of the first six songs being excellent showcases of metalcore prowess, you’ve heard it all. This is where the album begins its steady decline. “So It Goes” begins with more power metal-like riffing, which is excellent, but it quickly hits a brick wall; it does, for those curious, feature the album’s only solo—which, surprisingly, is nearly a minute long and very good. “Impostors Kingdom” and “Bled Dry” are both jumbled messes, with only brief flashes of greatness. The rest of the tracks, minus the very cool instrumental track “Big Bear And The Hour Of Chaos,” are simply middle-of-the-road metalcore tracks, neither great nor terrible; they’re just there.

The problem with the album is not that there are really any bad songs, but simply that taken as a whole the album lacks dynamics. It becomes tedious. After a point the songs just bleed into each without much separating one from the other. The choruses, for the most part, severely lack hooks. This takes away from each song having its own identity; the songs become faceless in a faceless crowd. Everything sounds great, everything is played well for what it is, but III: In The Eyes Of Fire is like Candy Corn: the first few bites are great, the next couple are OK, any more than that is simply just too much; try again next year.

AUDIO: This Glorious Nightmare and Sanctity Of Brothers

VIDEO: Giles

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