At Our Heels - Misanthropy and Godlessness
Rating
RIYL
The Hope ConspiracyThe Banner
American Nightmare
Panic
Release Date
08/10/2010
Label
Creator-DestructorTracklist
1. Through Their Teeth2. The Old Gloomies
3. Unholy
4. Sink with Me
5. Teeth and Bone
6. Graves
7. The Recluse
8. Detach/Withdraw
9. The Fainting Game
10. Non Sum Qualis Eram
11. Rituals
12. Capture and Consume
13. Kicking Rocks
Users Rating |
Your RatingCreate an account or log in to rate this album |
Recent Ratings |
|
|
|
|
|
Misanthropy and Godlessness is At Our Heels’ debut full length, and for those unfamiliar with the relatively young band, the Northern Californians play a style of gloomy, intense hardcore that grew in popularity earlier last decade because of bands like American Nightmare and The Hope Conspiracy. The band’s first attempt at an album is hit and miss; there are some great songs on here and a bunch of killer riffs, but it’s hard to get into many of them because they’re so brief.
In the span of thirteen tracks, nine of them are less than two minutes long. Moreover, there’s not a lot of ground covered in those shorter ones because they basically consist of two or three parts at the most with no structure, so each section of the song comes and goes before you have a chance to enjoy it. Take “Unholy” for example, it’s comprised of two fast, melodic hardcore parts, followed by a buildup and well placed breakdown. The problem is, however, that all of this happens in the span of a minute and nineteen seconds and the song ends without taking root in the listener’s head. The majority of the shorter tunes follow the same path, and it really would have been better to just combine a couple of them into longer songs since they sound as if they’d fit together without a problem.
The highlights on Misanthropy and Godlessness come from the standard length songs because they showAt Our Heels’ potential to effectively write moody, dismal music. “Graves” comes at an appropriate time in the middle of the album, helping to create some diversity with sludgy, drawn out riffs that help solidify the tone partially constructed earlier in the track list. The final track, “Kicking Rocks,” is a perfect example of what more of the songs on here should be like; it maintains an intense pace for a few minutes, uses guitar melodies to break up the parts and has catchy vocal rhythms that go perfectly with the music. If more of the songs were like this one, At Our Heels would have a top-tier hardcore album on their hands. “Rituals” is also worth mentioning because it’s just a cool track, consisting mainly of drums and vocals with eerie guitar sounds in the background; brief songs aren’t so bad when they’re creatively written.
Misanthropy and Godlessness is a decent album and At Our Heels has a ton of potential, but it’s not fully realized here. Short songs can be forgiven if the content is interesting and that just isn’t the case for many of the ones on this album. Also, the band would benefit from experimenting more with their sludgy side, if for no other reason than to have a better balance of tempo changes on their releases. This is a respectable first outing, though, and At Our Heels is worthy of being on your radar for the future.
--Nicholas Fritz
Comments
Lehigh Valley, PA
The thing that bothers me most about this band is they have the music of The Banner and the vocals of a 14 year wanna-be... it's upsetting honestly. I'll agree that they should be on a radar... if they get a new vocalist.
Minnesota
Nick, I'm totally with you on not being able to get into the shorter songs. When they actually take some time to build a song, it's pretty good.
I don't have as much of an issue with the vocals as Bill does. I think they're decent.
Find me EVERYWHERE:
Coopersburg, PA
Yeah, I don't mind the vocals either, the short songs are what kept this from being a higher rating though.