“Everything that glitters isn’t gold.”
It’s been a rather tumultuous few years for Australia’s The Amity Affliction. The shakeup of the band’s membership has seen none of its original members remain. It seemed like a new lease of life was upon the band with the recruitment of Kingdom of Giants bassist and vocalist Jonny Reeves, fulfilling the same role in The Amity Affliction.
The band’s honest approach to songwriting, especially about frontman Joel Birch’s struggles with mental health, has been divisive to say the least. There was genuine hope that with House Of Cards, the band could revitalize their sound on their ninth studio album. Their previous effort, Not Without My Ghosts, is not without its flaws, but it was the band’s strongest effort in a good while. The band’s first song with Reeves, the standalone single “All That I Remember”, did inspire confidence and a hope that the band could keep their momentum going.
With this album, the band’s sound leans noticeably more towards a djenty direction, taking on a cleaner production style than usual. There’s a heavy emphasis on electronic elements, with synths in particular taking a more prominent role. There seems to be an effort to push for a more modern version of Amity’s sound, leaving behind the heavier, grittier sound of Not Without My Ghosts.
Album opener combo “Vida Nueva” and “Kickboxer” is a genuinely impactful start to the album. The former, a suspenseful instrumental intro track, creates for an appropriately cinematic entrance and leads smoothly into “Kickboxer”. The mix of eerie synths and genuinely punchy guitar work, combined with Birch’s menacing delivery creates for a powerful first punch from House Of Cards.
The album’s title track presents what is to be expected from the rest of the album. The more melodic twist is immediately apparent, with Reeves coming in to deliver his signature vocals on the chorus. It has its moments of cliché, in particular the “hey!” chants and the “woahs”, but you could describe it as a serviceable job otherwise. “Heaven Sent” executes this vision to better effect, with much punchier verses and a stronger, albeit repetitive chorus. The ending breakdown is admittedly pretty impactful, with a ferocity to it that feels quite welcome.
It’s around the point of “Bleed” where the album’s issues start to become more noticeable. Although leaning in a more heavy direction like “Kickboxer”, the structure of “Bleed” is too predictable, following the same overall flow of most of the preceding tracks. Although the ending breakdown is admittedly quite punchy, there’s a lack of variety that plagues the track and it feels rather flat as a result. This starts to become more of a prominent issue on later tracks like “Break These Chains” or “Swan Dive”, with even the choruses from Reeves feeling rather lackluster. The song structures mixed with the rather uniform sounding djenty guitar work causes these tracks to blend together. The same general formula of a chorus-heavy structure with a heavy breakdown starts to feel very worn out even halfway through the album.
It might be reasonable to expect some Kingdom of Giants influence to bleed into the sound of this album, but it feels way too on the nose at times. Tracks like “Speaking In Tongues” lean heavily into the synth-influenced djentcore sound that Kingdom of Giants is known for, just not as well executed. It’s a style that doesn’t quite fit Amity; I’m admittedly a fan of their earlier, more post-hardcore leaning work, but even on Not Without My Ghosts, the grittier and more aggressive style felt more authentic to them. It’s not to say this approach completely falls flat; tracks like “Reap What You Sow” push with a greater intensity that works, even with the djenty sound. It just feels like the rest of the album isn’t on the same page, lacking in the impact that would make the album’s sound really stand out. It seems like Birch is going at it with full intensity while the rest of the band push in a more melodic direction, creating for a somewhat awkward clash of sounds at many points during the album. He simply sounds way too aggressive all of the time on this album.
With such a strong opening, I am rather puzzled why the House Of Cards doesn’t have more moments like “Kickboxer”, especially seeing that they can pull off that sort of ferocity. The rest of the album is by no means awful, but it’s really serviceable at best. The heartfelt messages of the lyrics are appreciated, but they can only go so far in making this album memorable. This album is certainly consistent, but maybe a little too consistent as it doesn’t push past its self-imposed boundaries. As it stands, House Of Cards is alright, and it will likely satisfy their existing fans, but there is still a fair bit left to be desired.
5/10
House Of Cards releases on the 24th of April via Pure Noise Records. Pre-order and merch links for the album can be found here.