“You come alive when you watch me die.“
Philadelphia hardcore outfit Varials are back after a tumultuous few years with their third album Scars For You To Remember. Signifying the first full-length release after the departure of vocalist Travis Tabron, it is their most aggressive and ambitious release yet. Embracing a slightly dialed back heaviness, with a focus on a nu-metalcore sound, following on from their previous release In Darkness, they have further expanded their horizons and experimented with new ideas, as has been the case with each iteration of the band previous.
Walking the tightrope between nu-metalcore and hardcore, they have tried to craft what seems to be a concept album in the way the songs have been structured. Despite trying to be thematic, it ends up falling short in that regard, failing to meaningfully separate its sound from the sea of metalcore albums out there today, with angry ragers throughout and no semblance of a flowing theme or chapters as the titles suggest.
For what it’s worth, the musicianship here is admittedly solid. Akin to Alpha Wolf and Knocked Loose, two of the biggest names dominating the scene as of now, Varials fit right in. Hard hitting drums and ruthless breakdowns dominate throughout, broken intermittently by three interludes aptly titled as Chapters 2 through 4, with the first chapter being an entire song in itself. While these interludes by themselves aren’t necessarily bad in a vacuum, they detract significantly from the album’s momentum.
The album’s core issue quickly begins to rear its head, though, as the actual meat of Scars For You To Remember is infused with songs you have probably heard a million times before. Don’t get me wrong, many of the songs focused more towards the core side of things are solid efforts, namely “Phantom Power”, “Ritual Division (HAÜS)” and “.50”, but seldom do they break away from the tropes of what has been done time and again.
“Circles” is easily my favorite cut from the album, owing to it separating itself sonically, and not blending into the mind-numbing heaviness that the remainder of the album leans so heavily into. Leaning more towards the melodic metalcore/post-hardcore side with clean vocals, it feels like a breath of fresh air amidst the unceasing angst.
However, the overt positives are short-lived, as the album ends on a not-so-grand note with “Halo of the Sun”, fading into oblivion with the rest of the album, which prove to be difficult to tell apart from their mood. Further, the mix often feels muddled with the drums sounding a bit weak, and the guitar and bass tones lacking balance.
While it is a bit unnerving having three interludes in an album with a runtime barely half an hour long, it is the short length Scars For You To Remember that is its saving grace. It often feels repetitive, and when it does not, the interludes are there to halt its already stilted pace by shoving a brick wall into the album’s flow, detracting heavily from the impact of the songs. Varials do demonstrate potential here, but Scars For You To Remember falls flat due to lackluster pacing and a largely unchanging soundscape. Superficially however, perhaps it could be argued that this album is designed to simply be dumb fun, and I suppose if you can stomach its flaws, it’ll be just that.
4/10
Scars For You To Remember is out this Friday via Fearless Records, and you can pre-order the record here.