Wednesday 25 June 2008

Review - ANDWHITESTARS - Uncertainty

ANDWHITESTARS - Uncertainty

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6 out of 10

The cover looks like something Zao might have pulled in the self-titled era, a false impression indeed. ANDWHITESTARS hail from Barnsley, home to fiercely weighty behemoths Errander. Mixing together Metal and Hardcore apparently, so, Metalcore then. This CDep certainly leans more towards hardcore, with the gang vocals found on pretty much every track, you can imagine the kids tearing around the pit waiting to the time in the song to punch the air and sing along, by the forth track it becomes a little expected. The vocals are reminiscent equal parts Earth Crisis and Killswitch Engage. The production from the very consistent hands of Jason Sanderson is as big as you'd hope, bringing the guitars to the epicentre. It ticks all the boxes; each song has a section of every generic passage from the genre(s). The true hardcore sections of this CD do have potential to give the UK something it's been searching for since the days of Stampin Ground, a hardcore band with metal riffs you can get your teeth in to. But the metal sections, as slick as they sound, are the sort of metal by numbers you'd expect from Adam D and his obviously tongue in cheek crew.

ANDWHITESTARS could do with deciding what they want to do, and crossing the genre's causes conflict rather than cohesion, they are playing music from two very different worlds, a world filled with passion, heart, sweat and tears, and a world filled with technical riffage, stadium shows, lights, action and cameras. These guy's have members who are still at school, and after seeing bands in a similar position find their way and their sound through maturity and experience, the road could lead to greater things. At the moment, it seems like the sum of parts of a band pulling in different directions, though with undeniable competency.

Listen: www.myspace.com/andwhitestars

Tracklist:
1. Masterpeice
2. Tyranny
3. Floods
4. Hourglass
5. Heartstrings
6. Reclaim

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