Stand Your Ground - Despondenseas
Rating
RIYL
The Ghost InsideAs Hell Retreats
This Distance
Lifeboat
Release Date
08/30/2011
Label
Rite of PassageTracklist
1. Castaway2. Onwards and Downwards
3. A Sudden Breath
4. No Star Shines
5. Nautilus
6. Crooked Jaw
7. In the Wake of Drowning
8. The Deadlands
9. Dispatch
10. Adrift
11. An Angry Sea
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Depending on your predilection the recent deluge of melodic hardcore is either a welcome trend or an infernal curse, and since I tend to fall into the former camp, Despondenseas was able to ingratiate itself into my playlist quite easily. Now, this statement of course can work two ways, once again dependent on your melodic hardcore outlook; if you think it’s a dead scene, Stand Your Ground won’t win you over, but if you’re looking for the sound to be held in capable hands, read on.
“Castaway” clears the air immediately, albeit too suddenly, with an opening riff that recalls The Ghost Inside, and then proceeds to plow mercilessly into chugs, gang vocals, and break-downs, but of course tempered with the melodic underpinnings that probably helped spawn The Tank Thong feature of recent memory. But in all seriousness this is exactly the sort of well-executed offering that will comfortably slide in amongst the current bumper crop. “Onwards and Downwards” cleanly follows “Castaway” with a largely melodic ensemble, being among the more memorable of the group with an oblique It Prevails association. Track three “A Sudden Breath”’s piano-driven interlude feels premature but is not altogether unwelcome, and it does do a good job in setting up “No Star Shines.”
So by now a pattern should be clear to you: there is not much in the way of deviation of form present on this record, but again, the aesthetic is held down. At a shade over a half hour Despondenseas doesn’t muddle about long enough to overstay its welcome, instead delivering enough cherry-bomb two-steppers and pit-fillers lobbed in amongst the more emotive push to not only pace the better progenitors of the genre, but keep guys (in light of, you know, hardcore being a veritable sausage-fest) in both mesh and tight denim sated. Other tracks worthy of singular praise include the absolutely nasty “The Deadlands,” “Nautilus” with vocals that sound like Hand of Mercy and the heavyweight down-tuned ox of a riff that punches a hole right through the middle of the song, and the effective usage of delay on “Adrift” coupled with a vocal that here recalls Winston McCall of Parkway Drive. On a side note, the Seven audio clips (as seen on “Dispatch,” a second interlude which is one too many for such a brief record) are one thing that is definitely a dead scene.
We’ve established that Stand Your Ground isn’t forging ahead into the unknown, et cetera et cetera et cetera, but if you find yourself digging around for more of a The Ghost Inside-type thing, then Despondenseas should work just fine, marching lock-step in formation with the rest of the genre’s upper division phalanx, sowing and devastating in equal measure along their war-path.
--Jacob Oliver
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