Onward To Olympas - This World Is Not My Home

Rating

single starsingle starsingle star

RIYL

Before There Was Rosalyn
Gwen Stacy
To Speak Of Wolves

Release Date

01/19/2010

Label

Facedown Records

Tracklist

1. Unstoppable
2. Enemies
3. Overcoming
4. Her Best Words Were Goodbye
5. Don’t Cry To Me
6. Sink Or Swim
7. Awake In A Dream
8. Presence At The Funeral
9. The Lost Generation
10. This World Is Not My Home

Users Rating

single starsingle starsingle starhalf star
1 rating

Your Rating

Create an account or log in to rate this album

Recent Ratings

Not long ago I wrote a review of Gwen Stacy’s A Dialogue, a record that caught me completely off-guard with its quality. The debut album from Charlotte, North Carolina’s Onward To Olympas, This World Is Not My Home, has affected me in a similar manner with its muscular metalcore attack coming seemingly out of left field. You see, given the cheesy album art and rather weak name, I was expecting something infinitely more gimmicky. Granted this album is most certainly not the most original thing to hit record store shelves, but it succeeds in much the same way that A Dialogue did—with towering breakdowns, an uncompromising metallic bite, and bits of melody interspersed throughout.

It becomes clear right from the onset in “Unstoppable” what the listener is in for, and the band rarely backs down for the next forty minutes. The formula is familiar but effective, with the traditional metalcore template employed to good use. A drawback is that there is not a whole lot of differentiation between the tracks, but taken as a whole, it is a very solid record. The real shining moments on the album are when the band takes the liberty of throwing in a few stylistic flourishes: a blast beat here, a rousing chorus there (see: “Sink or Swim” in particular), and the down-home riffs that creep into “Don’t Cry To Me” and “Her Best Words Were Goodbye” are particular stand-outs. The shortcomings of the disc are about the same as with A Dialogue as well: an occasional feeling of sameness and the clean parts of the album sometimes coming off as forced or contrived. When executed within the logical framework of the song the clean parts are very effective, but too often it feels as if the band has simply tacked on a clean chorus for lack of a better idea of what to do. As they mature, I’m sure these wrinkles will be ironed out.

Onward To Olympas have proven once again that you cannot judge a book by its cover. We don’t have the second coming of Coalesce on our hands, but neither do we have a shameless mess that will be forgotten in a few months’ time. This is not “the start of something new” as the band proclaims on “Sink or Swim,” but it is an enjoyable listen nonetheless.

--Jake Oliver

Last updated: 02/02/2010 06:07AM

Comments

Matt Murphy
02/02/2010
07:25AM
Location
Chapel Hill, NC

There should be a cease-and-desist order issued to any North Carolina metalcore bands formed post-2003.

Cody Rogers
02/02/2010
10:18AM
Age: 17
Location
Hillsborough, NC
Matt Murphy

There should be a cease-and-desist order issued to any North Carolina metalcore bands formed post-2003.

Sadly, yeah. I've seen these guys before and it was all the kids who had just discovered New Era hats and Sauconys who are all into "hardcore". These guys seem like they grew up when Norma Jean and Haste the Day were big in North Carolina and got into the scene too late.

Rick Gebhardt
02/03/2010
01:21PM
Age: 29
Location
Minnesota

Y'know, this album really isn't all that bad.  I'm actually kinda digging it.  Nothing special, but it's definitely very listenable.