Music Style Metal-core

Artist History Former members of Shoot The Hostage, and Invoke The Flood.

Group Members Shawn Page - Vocals Louie Pahl - Guitar Barry Jaeger - Drums Earl Serafica - Bass Parker Krieg - Guitar

Albums Wings Of Scarlet / With Dead Hands Rising / Tears Will Drown - Split CD

Press Reviews CD Review Quebec Hardcore News August 20, 2002 www.QCHC.com Various Artists: "Words As Weapons: Volume One" Life Sentence Records - 2002 Words As Weapons volume 1 is one of the latest masterpieces to come out of the Salt Lake City-based Life Sentence Records heaquarters. Seriously, everything they have been releasing lately is pure gold. Words As Weapons Vol 1. (WAW1) is a split CD featuring 3 relatively new metalcore bands from the midwest/east coast of the USA. That feature alone makes this record very unique! Split releases are always a great way to discover more than one band, but it's even better when it's done with a theme, which is the case with WAW1. The first band on the record is Wings Of Scarlet, from Wisconsin. There couldn't have been a better song intro to begin this record...trust me. Angels Bring Life starts out with a powerful scream that lasts exactly 23 seconds! To make things even better, they move right in with a power blast converging to a solid breakdown, only to end things with a mesmerizing melodic metal part. That song is just incredible, by all accounts. ...And This I Swear and Overcome are just as great and will definitely leave you hanging for more. Overall, Wings Of Scarlet are a great band to check out if you're into emotional metalcore with sick melodies. A great sing along on the second track reminds me of 7Angels 7Plagues. The recording quality is fabulous. 8 out of 10 for the Wings Of Scarlet songs. The next rockers are Tears Will Drown. Just from the name, you can probably guess they play some kind of emotional metalcore. Actually, that isn't too far away, but they also strongly remind me of Darkest Hour, especially when you consider the constant fast parts strung out one after another with the thoroughly present double bass drum madness. Their second song, Drowning In Shallow Water is by far their best, bringing together a lot of basic songwriting elements in a most efficient manner. I really love how their vocalist lets out his lyrics in his normal, high-pitched, Zao-like range, but growls or spoken parts could use a little more tuning. I would normally say that the recording quality is sufficient, but compared to Wings Of Scarlet it is lacking a lot of bass. For these reasons, I give their 3 songs 6.5/10 but I still expect a lot from them. The closing spot has been awarded to Minnesota's With Dead Hands Rising, and as good as the two other bands are, WDHR are the number one reason I would get this release! Let me explain. I have honestly not been impressed this much in a long time... WDHR are definitely taking conventional metalcore to the next level, believe it or not. I was amazed at how well every single part or riff works inside their songs. Everything has carefully been put together, the WHDR guys may be young (the drummer is 17!!) but they certainly do not lack the talent. They actually contribute 4 songs to the split, for a total of 20 minutes. They remind me of a mix between straight up hardcore a la Throwdown, the latest Hymn From Above songs and the current brand of sick metalcore that's been sweeping the nation lately. You like "alarm system parts"?? You know the ones where guitars scream really loud... well WHDR offer tons and tons of those. As well as some old-school metallic trashcore riffs that definitely tickle my fancy. There's nothing they can't do right. Some of the best news I've heard lately is about how WDHR are about to sign a full length record deal! Definitely a record to look forward to, mark this one on your calendars once it's announced my friends, in the meantime you HAVE to check out their four WAW1 songs. So in conclusion, I am overwhelmingly pleased with this disc. I do wish there could be band pictures in there, but I guess you can get all of this online. At least, the cover art is pretty sweet. Also at first I figured the bands would be a lot more politically-inclined with their lyrics (title of the split being Words As Weapons) but all of the songs seem to be about personal issues. I guess "Poems As Weapons" would be more suitable. However, Volume 2 of WAW will feature xKOMBATx among others, so bring on the straight edge pride lyrics. Congratulations again to Life Sentence for releasing such an amazing split. (8) of 10 for WoS (4 1/2) of 5 overall Reviewed by: Jeff A. Lambert

Location Milwaukee, WI - USA

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