“Every breath is just another step closer to the grave.”
Initially rising as one head of the tech-metal hydra that emerged following the demise of genre progenitors Fellsilent (with the other two heads spawning Monuments and TesseracT), through that, and certainly the legacy they’ve built of their own name, Heart of a Coward undeniably have a lot of pedigree in the scene. While their early releases, defined by a keen blend of progressive tendencies with explosively heavy metalcore, came in rapid succession and to much acclaim, over the years, and especially since the departure of long-time vocalist Jamie Graham, their output seems to have slowed down heavily. It goes without saying that losing a frontman is a drastic change to accustom to, especially one so intrinsic to the sound of a band, but replacement Kaan Tasan (formerly of No Consequence) has held his own fairly well in the years following.
While I wasn’t the greatest fan of 2019’s The Disconnect, it was clear through that record that Tasan was a more than capable replacement for Graham, albeit in a way that is wholly his own, and that is only further exemplified in a live setting. Frequently bringing the house down with material old and new, Heart of a Coward are a band I firmly believe everyone should see live before making their minds up about, but I digress. It’s been four long years since The Disconnect, and Heart of a Coward’s return to the fold in This Place Only Brings Death raises some questions about their sense of identity.
From the outset, the band’s stated intent and ethos in crafting This Place Only Brings Death certainly rings true. A more concerted effort to shed the proggier skin of their earlier years, and focus more heavily on refining their metalcore sound free of that established pretence. In doing so, however, Heart of a Coward expose both their utmost strengths and weaknesses across their fifth LP. Opening number and title track “This Place Only Brings Death” sets a fairly steady tone for what to expect going forward. Chuggy, riffy, aggressive metalcore with a hint of melodicism not dissimilar from what you’d expect from the likes of more traditional metal-leaning core outfits like Trivium or Sylosis. It’s a decent, if fairly unadventurous metalcore number that, at least on paper, seems to tick all the boxes of a ‘modern metalcore banger’, but seems to lack a certain presence or energy that much of their early work thrived upon.
Following number “Captor” demonstrates their aforementioned strengths and weaknesses in equal measure. Harking back in moderation to their chunkier and groovier roots in records like Severance, “Captor”, instrumentally at the very least, showcases they still have what it takes to craft riffy, head-bobbing, bouncy bangers. However, the track exposes their Achilles’ Heel across This Place Only Brings Death in some truly weak vocal composition. Tasan’s screams land with the ferocity expected, but it’s when the track ushers in some grittier clean vocals that things seem to fall apart. Not only are the vocal melodies lacking in much draw or punch, but the performance sounds laboured and unenthusiastic, to be blunt. This is a notion carried across much of the explorations of clean vocals across the record, with tracks like “Surrender to Failure” and “Devour Me” harbouring similar issues throughout, though perhaps not quite as starkly, and with both still being largely aided by some fun instrumental writing.
There are times in which the album’s more melodic aspects do shine through, however. The Architects-esque “Decay” contains a stronger and largely more dynamic implementation of clean vocals en masse, with more softly crooned vocals from Tasan leaving a much stronger impact, with a much more stable and pleasant tone. The track’s main chorus sticks the landing, too, with a memorable and well-executed pitch-screamed belt topping the whole thing off, contrasting the generally more reserved performance seen across the track. With “Decay” further impressing through its inclusion of some of the album’s strongest and most memorable riffing, it’s clear to see why this was a clear choice as a single.
As we enter the back half of This Place Only Brings Death, something of an odd pattern starts to emerge. While the album’s first half certainly contains some decent moments, it seems at the halfway point is where the album’s energy really kicks in. Tracks like “Hex” and “Dehumanise” exemplify the band’s greatest strengths in crafting heavy, groovy ragers. It perhaps stands to reason that the album’s ethos was a tad misguided, as it’s in moments like these – where Heart of a Coward more overtly tap into the sounds of their earlier years – that This Place Only Brings Death truly excels. It’s odd, too, that so many of these shining moments are regimented to the album’s back half, as it truly feels that it splits the project up into two opposing wholes rather than an evenly spread and cohesive collection. That’s not to say the remainder of the record is a net negative, per se, but rather than it feels like there was a significant amount more passion and focus put into the second leg of the record compared to the first, leaving the record feels a tad lopsided.
The album closes out with “All Life Is Finite”, a track with great ambition in terms of the broader scope of the record. By far the album’s longest cut at over five minutes, and with its most concerted effort to craft a more overt hook in the track’s repeated eponymous callout in its pre-chorus, “All Life Is Finite” feels so close to sticking the landing as a whole, but still falls relatively short due to its lacklustre chorus and strangely abrupt ending. While much of the track feels to be riding on an energetic high, it quickly ducks everything out to make way for a spacious and reserved final clean verse that ushers out the whole record. The performance on this final verse feels reminiscent of the reserved and controlled approach “Decay” took to its clean vocal composition, and impresses somewhat in that, but it feels so haphazardly spliced in that I can’t help but feel like something is missing from the closing moments of This Place Only Brings Death. It yearns for something more, perhaps one last explosive chorus, or a triumphant bridge, but instead, perhaps poetically given its title, the track quickly fades out into nothingness and fails to capitalise on the momentum it earns through the remainder of its runtime.
As a whole, This Place Only Brings Death is a conflicting album. While not necessarily a bad project by any stretch, it’s one that feels like its ideals and intent were misplaced. A relatively strong back half with some of the band’s most enjoyable cuts since Severance isn’t quite enough to bolster the relatively uninspired opening run, especially when replete with such odd choices in its vocal composition that should perhaps have been left on the cutting room floor. While I certainly feel that This Place Only Brings Death is a stronger foray than their previous effort in 2019’s The Disconnect, I can’t quite shake the notion that Heart of a Coward perhaps need to recalibrate and truly focus in on their core strengths and build upon them, rather than needlessly attempting to shed their skin and carve a new identity for themselves out of a far less inspired foundation.
6/10
This Place Only Brings Death is due for release this Friday, September 22nd via Arising Empire, and you can find pre-orders for the record here.