“Seeking safety but I cannot control this fear.“
As touched on in the review of German unit Defocus‘ record there is a place for me on earth, there is seemingly a never-ending mill of bands from the continent signed up to the label Arising Empire. While the reality might be that it’s not as many as perceived, it is perhaps the similarity of their sounds and themes that each band on the German-based label see eschew. While this is not particularly the fault AVRALIZE, the latest band to drop a record on the label, FREAKS doesn’t really do much to challenge any of these preconceptions.
A concoction of synths and djent-y riffs open up “LOTUS” along with its vocal patterns hitting all the well-worn points of 2010s metalcore. Production devoid of personality places itself right at the forefront here, becoming most noticeable on its breakdown which levies little impact, even if the synths here are pleasant on the ear. Vocalist Severin Sailer does display some solid range on “HIGHER“, moving between moments of cleans, gutterals and serviceable mid-range screams. However, there isn’t really much here that excites or innovates when it comes to the current state of modern metalcore.
“BRIGHT” and “STAB BY STAB” add their own variance to the record, the former touching on more melancholic moments before moving into something much more heavier and groovier on “STAB BY STAB“, yet both still exist in this now narrow space of the genre. “CANVAS” takes these groovier moments and runs with them, even adding a saxophone spannered in that at least might cause a chuckle due to how out of left field it is.
Moving through its final third, on tracks such as “ALIVE” and its closing title track, Freaks continues to explore its well-trodden path. With the closer even chucking in a “we’re all just freaks” lyric, just in case another groan-inducing tagline was what metalcore needed, the sheer compression of the production further begins to wear hear too despite the album being a noticeably short eight tracks.
While it’s not directly that AVRALIZE are bad, they represent a symptom of a wider issue with where “modern” metalcore as a whole is at – a prism that has merely come to reference itself and seek influence from their peers, therefore not causing it to innovate in any fashion. And while those at the top of the genre are much more guilty of this, innovation and the most creativity is usually found lower down ranks, with AVRALIZE seemingly sticking with the pack for now despite their evident skill at times on FREAKS.
4/10
FREAKS is out March 22nd via Arising Empire.