CD: “Full Of Lies” by When Reasons Collapse

Formed in 2008, When Reasons Collapse are a French 5 piece who draw inspiration from acts including Heaven Shall Burn and The Black Dahlia Murder to create a deathcore sound which combines the heaviness, frenetic drumming and downtuned guitars of death metal with the breakdowns of metalcore.

Unusually for a more extreme metal band When Reasons Collapse are female fronted, something that is still reasonably rare among deathcore acts and provides a way for them to stand out in what is fast becoming a rather over populated genre. But in order for a band to thrive in the crowded metalcore/deathcore scene they have to bring something a bit more concrete than a slightly unusual choice of line up to the party. So, have When Reasons Collapse achieved this with “Full of Lies”?

The first thing you hear when you play the record is an instrumental intro, which seems to be quite gentle and gives an entirely misleading impression of how When Reasons Collapse actually sound. No sooner has that finished than we are thrown right in at the deep end with “Another End”. Oh mon dieu, this is crushingly heavy stuff indeed. There are no fancy guitar solos here, and certainly no clean vocals hiding anywhere. No, this is a full frontal assault of riff after face-melting riff accompanied by drummer Guillaume beating on the drums in a thoroughly vicious manner that suggests they just said something unforgivable about his mother.

And as for the much vaunted female vocals, well, they don’t actually sound any different to most male death metal vocalists. There’s certainly nothing wrong with frontwoman Christina’s vocals, they’re powerful and guttural as good death metal vocals should be, but there are no distinguishing features to make them stand out from any other singers on the scene, male or female. The band’s lyrics are nothing to write home about either, with the standard death metal themes of judgement, lies and the dark heart of society all present and correct.

It is this lack of distinguishing features that proves a problem for ëFull of Liesí as a whole, as it turns out. When Reasons Collapse are talented musicians and Christina is a competent singer who can swing easily from deep guttural growls to higher pitched screamed vocals, there is nothing on this EP to make them stand out from the crowd. Every track on the EP sounds rather generic, and “Will to Die” is the only track that attempts to do something a bit different, with its slower, doom-metal inspired intro riff.

When Reasons Collapse claim to represent a mix of metal sub-genres the music they make is heavy music for purists The sound of pure primal brutality, untroubled by concerns of melody and ultimately if you like your music uncomplicated and ear-bleedingly heavy, then you will probably find something to enjoy here. However, anyone who prefers their metal to be a bit more nuanced and dare I say it actually musical, is probably better off looking elsewhere.

Links
http://www.deezer.com/en/artist/1462320
https://www.facebook.com/WhenReasonsCollapse
http://www.youtube.com/user/WhenReasonsCollapse/videos

Words: Elinor Day