Crosscore

What a strange album. The Way of Purity bill themselves as “Militant PostCore”. Militant about what, I wonder? Well, apparently, militant about “correction of human errors through the inspiration of the animal perfection”. I don’t know what that means, but they all wear balaclavas in their promo photos so they must be serious about it. And they called their album “Crosscore”, which is the first hint here that they must be taking the piss. Perhaps I put that Brian Posehn on by mistake... Or is it a religious thing? Lord knows. Moving swiftly on...

Anyway, no doubt nobody will still be reading this after the genre descriptor in the second sentence above. I can hear these words echoing back at me from the cavernous void that is this review’s readership. If by chance, anyone with a faulty “Back” button on their browser remains, what does it sound like? Well, it’s shouty, chugging metalcore filled that alternates between rattling death metal and clunkily off-kilter breakdowns. But there are a few elements here thrown in that give this an unexpectedly odd- unique, in fact- character. The first are the truly obnoxious synth elements that surface regularly throughout. Occasionally reminiscent of popular teenagers Enter Shikari, or maybe even badly-costumed avant-grind nutters The Locust, The Way of Purity often hold them back. But on tracks like Loyal Breakdown of Souls, where a strange 80s-pop buzz gives a rather dry and crunchy core breakdown a nice sense of juvenile lunacy, the effect is beneficial indeed. The second oddity to flag up are the clean female vocals. The start of The Rise of Noah features sweet, gothy warbling that alternates with conspicuously-accented (and largely unwelcome) gruff male vocals that remind me intensely of Lacuna Coil. Overlaying this core blasting are vibrantly tuneful lead guitar lines. Essentially it’s a fusion of metalcore and pop-goth pseudo-metal. A strange, and surprisingly effective combination. This is easily one of the best tracks here.

At other times- towards the end in particular- I start to get the impression of some real metallic depth forcing its way through. Burst has almost a quasi-black feel to it, and closer Pure leaps between those goth vocals, those parping synths, and an almost Dillinger like urgency in its violently techy twists and turns. There is promise here, for certain.

It’s remarkably short- less than half an hour in fact- and before you realise it, it’s all over. It’s hard to know quite what to make of it. The cynic in me says it’s simply some bog standard metalcore with a few bells and ribbons on. The optimist notices the weird and occasionally wonderful oddities that lurk within these ten tracks. A confusing album that will certainly not be for everybody. In fact, I wonder if it’s really for anyone except the band themselves?