Unearth - The Stings of Conscience (2001)^{Release ID: 4171}

It's so easy for most metalheads to hate hardcore metal bands. Though the metalcore genre has some hardcore cliches, it still has modern metal elements that I enjoy and other should've, such as melodic leads, thrashy passages, and downtuned guitars. Unearth is definitely one of those modern metalcore bands with those elements, along with other bands like Shadows Fall. Unearth really kept their promise to "unearth" impressive modern metalcore albums, but their debut album? BULLSH*T!! The Stings of Conscience shows the band trying to fuel the fire but end up descending into almost fully hardcore garbage, an indecent exposure in modern music!

Don't get me wrong, I like modern hardcore when it's mixed together with metal, that's what metalcore is. But this album has almost every potential hardcore cliche; dissonant riffs, screamo vocals, whiny lyrics, and nauseating drums and bass (the instruments, not the electronic genre). Thank God there are no clean emo passages! How can they have mostly all that and call this metal!? Oh wait, there are some metal elements that are good enough for me to give this album a 3-star rating; harmonized riffs and lead melodies. What would actually make this album metalcore would be actual downtuned thrash solos, which sadly they don't f***ing have here! At least the guitarists try going through greater convincing lengths. The lead melodies actually sound like they're imitating a solo by going in a significant length of time.

Again, I won't go into too much detail in the songs because of their sh*ttiness, but "One Step Away" has some obnoxiously repeated leads in a poor attempt of a hardcore band at the time sounding metal, especially towards the end. The songwriting is more formula-focused and barely catchy, once again making you think twice before ever listening to the album again. I suppose the only good song personally is "Stronghold", a strong indication of the more metal sound the next album would have.

I'm sure other hardcore/metalcore fans have different opinions, but I found barely any unique metal aspects. So please, avoid this sh*t and move on to the rest of Unearth's discography. Well I guess die-hard fans of Unearth and Shadows Fall might give this album a listen, and that's somewhat fine. Don't say I didn't warn you....

Favorites: "Stronghold"