April 2020 Feature Release - The Revolution Edition

It's now April which of course means that we'll be nominating a brand new monthly feature release for each clan. This essentially means that we're asking you to rate, review & discuss our chosen features for no other reason than because we enjoy the process & banter.    

This month's feature release for The Revolution is 2005's third album from Californian outfit HORSE The Band  entitled "The Mechanical Hand". It's a record that combines elements of post-hardcore & metalcore but mainly represents the peak for the subgenre known as nintendocore; a sound that's popularized by its use of old-school 8-bit video game synth melodies & samples. Sound interesting? Well please tell us what you think.

I really, really wanted to be pleasantly surprised by this, but this just didn't do anything for me. In the end this is math-y Metalcore with a keyboard turned to 8-bit sounds, and while it has some good moments, it doesn't really go beyond the labels for me. I don't think the retro sound effects add that much to the feel of the album and they even come off as annoying most of the time. The guitar work can be good, but none of it is very memorable past a few decent Metalcore breakdowns here and there. I do like the more complex structure these guys use while trying to maintain a heavier sound, but many other progressive/math metal bands do what they're doing in a much more interesting way. 

I'm glad I know that this exists now, that's for sure, but I'm not sure how you can make something like this feel really fleshed out or interesting. 

2.5/5

You know what? I felt very similarly to you on first listen Xephyr. But after giving "The Mechanical Hand" a couple more listens I couldn't help but find some endearing qualities in it. For starters, it's a very varied & reasonably complex record which doesn't stick to the one plan for any length of time. The vocals & breakdowns show plenty of enthusiasm even if they are fairly generic metalcore inclusions but the 8-bit synth lines are really well incorporated into HORSE The Band's sound & it gives them a quirky appeal similar to Mr. Bungle. Do I think there's justification for an entirely new subgenre of metal (i.e. Nintendocore) here? Well... no... not really. The Nintendocore tag is usually associated with the more melodic side of metalcore but this record has more to do with mathcore. The instrumentation is very strong &, despite 3 or 4 duds across the 13 song tracklisting, I have to say that I eventually found myself getting some pretty positive feelings out of "The Mechanical Hand".

3.5/5