Time to turn heavy! For fans of the new generation of pissed off hardcore… it’s time to watch out. There’s a new, furious band all out of XXX’s and ready to crack your brain. They’re Sworn In and they’ve recently made a name for themselves. The resulting cable has united tech-heads, hardcore kids, and even mathcore fans through the heavy aural delights. A lot of legitimate Sworn In interest grew over the last few months. The surge piqued my attention, so I decided to give a listen to their debut album.
“The Death Card” just dropped on August 20th through Razor & Tie Records and the reason for the interest is all in the sound. Behold the angry musical weapon Sworn In has built. A weapon which is gonna throw a spiteful display of anger and insanity in your face, delivered without any hesitation. It’s also delivered with intelligence as they break down barriers and hardcore boundaries.
The opening track “XIII” creates such an ill ambiance. The likes of which hasn’t been heard in years, dragging the listeners down within its own insanity. Insanity which reveals itself in all of it’s potential with the first full song of the album “Hypocrisy”. Those acute guitar sounds will drill their way through your skull while the crazy vocals yell into your ears with authentic and vicious anger. Such heartfelt and real vocals are hard to find nowadays. It’s the sound of a voice that doesn’t give a shit about filling in for the “scene” or straying from that path and being original. It’s simply the voice of somebody who felt what he’s belting out because his heart and mind crossed that line bringing blind hate, yet lucid and aware of the target: someone, something, but often himself.
Some of the lyrics can better explain it: “Fuck you! You meaningless me! You’re everything you told me never to be!” or “We are all alone at heart, and we are meant to be this way from the start”.
Tracks like “Mindless” and “Dead Soul” feature a kinda nu-metal riff (detect a Korn influence in the first one?) and fast vocals which may remind you of the insanity found in Slipknot’s very first works. Heaviness, bass drops, and vocal intensity give way to a couple of very appreciable melodic apertures. This is especially found in “Mindless”, but also “A Song For The Nameless” and “Three Cheers”. Their inclusion is definitely wise and well placed.
A better representation of this band can be found in the heavy single “Snake Eyes”. It displays all that insanity, groovy hardcore attacks, and an intelligent mathcore effort. Other great examples also come to mind. “Deadpan” is probably the heaviest episode on the whole album and the closing track “Return (Heartless)” will show you why djentlemen thought this hardcore band was so intresting.
“The Death Card” is an album you need to check out. Maybe not for its originality, but definitely because Sworn In brought this music back to that apex of authentic anger, hate and illness in a way which hasn’t been reached for quite a long time.
-MATTIA
Links: Facebook // Official Website // iTunes
