Heart Of A Coward – This Place Only Brings Death
Release Date: 22nd September 2023
Label: Arising Empire
Order/Stream
Genre: Metal, Djent, Metalcore.
FFO: Northlane, Erra, While She Sleeps, Architects.
Review By: Metal Miguel
Another blistering effort from Heart Of A Coward who bring their groove and hard riffs together on another album filled with ten tracks to keep your head nodding till the breakdowns happen then those nods become slow and purposeful – epic!
I’ve enjoyed their output since 2013 when Severance hit, and I have to say it is still one of my favourite albums from the band. Deliverance and The Disconnect were solid offerings too, and I have my favourite tracks on both but as an album, I’d be a bit more selective on listening to them all the way through, and I think now with the latest offering of This Place Only Brings Death I have another album that has banger after banger, for me anyway. I realise there is a subjective quality to my opinion here and there is every chance that won’t resonate with others, but that’s the arts for you and even with metal albums it’s very much an accolade to have a full album that fans can enjoy from one end to the others, and this has that. There is a journey of up and down with song types, spliced with riffs, beatdowns and melodic interjections that sit in nicely composed piles – like a sandwich of many layers that are easily enjoyable on their own but with a bite down through the layers you get this orgy of flavour that is too good not to bite in to again and again.
If I was going to be a little on the harsh side I’d say that the vocals are a wee bit dodgy in parts and there is a more treble-sounding edge to the guitars and production – production is something you can ignore or at least set your own listening ambience but the clean vocals maybe a little bit off, but not so bad you’d tear this a new one, in fact, it’s only a couple of times, but I thought worth mentioning, as impartiality and accuracy is key, but in no way a dealbreaker as this is a solid and powerful metal album which is an enjoyable listen over and over, sitting in nicely with their back catalogue and really shows how the band have come since their early beginnings.
(4 / 5)
