With a sound delivering a punch as rich and inescapable as that of the heart and lyrical confrontation it surrounds, the self-titled debut album from US post hardcore outfit Hostile Array s one striking and impressive introduction. That forceful, indeed imposing attack though comes in layers of enterprise and imagination which equally enticed and ignited an always searching appetite for fresh, exciting, and individual.
Emerging in the initial weeks of 2017, Maryland hailing Hostile Array have already hinted at the potential of the album and gave a rich taster of their sound through a couple of singles. Their music is tagged as post hardcore but has real depth and adventure to its character embracing an array of metal and punk spices alongside inspirations cited as including Underoath, Norma Jean, Silent Planet, and Architects. Consisting of Brendan Frey, Garrison Frey, Hector Fernandez, Fredy Menjivar, and Andrew Markle, the band also has a ferocious lyrical intent and touch, songs getting their claws into political and social issues, corruptions, and ill-doings.
The album opens up with the outstanding Herd Instinct, the track one of those first couple of singles luring keen attention. Sonic intrusion and rhythmic baiting opens its tempting, a great grumbling bass soon in tandem with fury fuelled throat rasping vocals. Quickly though there is imaginative hints licking at ears, blossoming with melodic enticement and wicked hooks as the roar continues to harass air and social mentality. It is a cauldron which continues to evolve, metal bred textures coursing hardcore irritability; invention escalated by the potent landscape of clean and raw vocal dexterity.
Bastardized follows with its own ferocious incursion, snarling and blistering the senses from its first breath before sharing a more nu-metal natured breath with a touch of bands like Spineshank to it. Snapping and jabbing at ears, the track springs toxic contagion and intense discontent within an atmospheric melody stranded weave; seducing whilst preying on the listener before Wiretap uncages its own ferocious animus with instinctive catchiness and melodic suggestion at its core. There is a whiff of Deftones meets Architects to its growing body but to be honest as all hints offered to tracks, the Hostile Array sound absorbs and turns all in its own individuality.
Next up Devoid brawls and hollers within atmospheric smog next, it’s calm but portentous climate an emotive glaze to an inner volatile frustration while Migrant Myth is a net of metallic wiring around a blaze of unbridled displeasure. Both tracks invigorate their already resourceful landscapes with tenaciously adventurous twists and turns spun from unpredictable and contrasting textures. The second of the two is immense, too short but a thrilling trespass of persuasive enterprise igniting the passions for the following sonic and melodic fire of Newspeak; a track quickly burying itself in ears with emotional intensity and melodies as descriptive as the words they colour.
New single Warmonger is next, looming up from a distance with the animosity and skilled dexterity its title suggests. The throaty grumble of the bass and the composed bone splitting swings of beats incite the sonic flames and vocal voracity which climbs their irritability; they in turn like accelerant sparking melodic shimmers into senses broiling, emotionally burning flames.
Viciousness and tempting contagion shape up Calloused, it as body inspiring infectious as it is vocally and lyrically scathing with a tapestry of flavours and invention to accentuate both aspects. The song flows straight into the waiting jaws and feuding tendrils of Bluebird, it an equally accomplished and magnetic patchwork of ire led emotions and flavours woven into one fluid and riveting trespass.
Final track Disillusioned is a pyre of punk and metal malcontent and emotional grievance within a skilled bedlam of imagination and ferocity. It is a powerful striking last attack in a charge of nothing but; a truly memorable departure demanding a swift return to the album to face, endure, and thrill at its creative challenge and vendetta on world ills. There have not been too many post hardcore bred releases which have truly fired us up in the past couple of years but Hostile Array have not only provided such a treat but one which deserves to be considered as the best of the lot.
The Hostile Array album is released June 1st, available @ https://hostilearray.bandcamp.com/album/hostile-array
https://www.facebook.com/HostileArray/ https://twitter.com/HostileArray/
Pete RingMaster 29/05/2018
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
The album opens with recent single Writers Block Party and instantly stirs up a roar of trouble and temptation. The vocal ferocity of Kellum triggers a tempest of sound, the guitar of Corey Skowronski abrasing the senses with rapacious riffs bound in tendrils of tangy grooves. That alone is a hellacious affair but add the belligerent bassline of Steven Mandell and Mitch Hosier’s vicious beats and it is a full-on accosting of ears. Equally though, it provides a virulent contagion of hungry hooks and inventive twists, all unpredictable and imaginatively leaping around with sonic Saint Vitus Dance.
It starts with Harold: The Hero where straight away beats rap at the door before ravenous metal seeded riffs and senses slamming beats join throat scarring spite flavoured vocals in breaking through the defences. It is an instant punk roar to get off on, the technical dance of the guitars enhancing rather than distracting from the instinctive belligerent holler. That unpredictability is already at play, adding an almost schizophrenic hue to the dirty frenzy gripping ears and a quickly awoken appetite.
The EP opens up with Was It All Worth It and straight away the track has attention hooked as a melody, with a mix of warmth and shadow in its character, wraps enticingly around ears. A rising storm of rhythms led by the feisty beats of Lewis Fife with the brooding rumble of James Carty’s bass alongside soon join the invitation, it all taking the listener into the turbulent yet catchy heart of the song where the guitar of Ben Brazier casts suggestive melodies and inventive hooks around his emotion flushed vocal squalls. It is a potent mix captivating from start to finish, melodic and post hardcore textures engaging each other in an arguably less than original but certainly potent way for a strong start to the release.
The following Stick Em Up is just as imposing and thrilling. It opens with chunky scarred riffs which need little time to persuade, their hint of repetitive temptation soon revealed to be one riveting texture in the grooved and rhythmic provocation of the track. As with the first though, things are soon evolving and shifting as melodically fiery and sonically scathing passages entwine with adventurously bruising endeavour within the track’s rock ‘n’ roll. The guitars of Phil Wolf and RL Brooks persistently nag and entice, stirring up the imagination and psyche as Carter vocally and lyrically savages with the backing of the similarly aggressive and potent tones of Brooks.
Devil’s Shape is as antagonistic and predacious at its start as the last was by its close, though it quickly shows, even if at times with subtlety, imaginative twists and turns within the tide of riffs and sonic discord. Rhythmically the track is an anthemic protagonist, stirring up eager attention even as things slow a touch as hostility rises. A calmer passage provides an oasis in the storm, it’s emotionally charged melodic calm drifting over the senses to beguile thoughts midway before its surroundings begin to bristle again and crowd in on the lure of clean vocals and warm melodies.
The EP opens with Sitting Pretty and within a breath the guitars of Ben Mercer and Nick Blair are spinning a web of technical prowess and enticing expression, the bass of Jamie Holmes no slouch in gripping attention either with his lure of dark strings. Swiftly the song is a climatic affair, emotion and sound colluding as vocalist Oli Cole lays down an antagonism of voice and narrative within the blossoming tempest. Calm and elegant moments also add to the temptation of the song, their shining passages still prowled by the predatory tones of the bass within a constant rhythmic web swung by drummer Chris Sheen. The track is a potent and welcomingly unpredictable start to the EP but soon eclipsed by its successor.