wars find themselves in the middle of a fork in the road when it comes to the modern Metalcore scene. Some acts turn to heavier ground, whilst others look to blur the lines between pop and rock, such as former genre front-runners Bring Me The Horizon.

We Are Islands, After All (Spinefarm), the group’s debut release, does little to pick either of these routes. The tracks merge together into one long drawn out segue from harsh vocals into melodic vocal runs, and all in all it feels a little too choreographed and by the numbers.

This is not to say that these elements are done poorly, however. Vocalist Rob Vicars clearly has the passion and theoretical knowledge to be able to piece together a solid track; look to ‘Still Waters Run Deep’ for the standout vocal track, a competent display of interplay between the emotive screams and typical guitar work.

The moments where wars fully relax and get into the groove are very easy to get swept away by,and the hard-hitting riffs and triplet kicks offered up are impossible not to bang your head along to. It is just a shame that these moments are few and far between and are often gone as quickly as they dig their claws into your eardrums.

When the chaos reigns on ‘Snows and Skies’, parallels can be drawn to letlive, and it really is here that wars sound somewhat different with the clear production on We Are Islands, After All creating juxtapositions against the musical backdrop. This element of wars’ sound could be the very thing which sees them sky-rocket in the future.

While it could be argued that everything that can be done with metalcore has already been achieved, if wars are able to crack open their full potential and adapt to the changing musical landscape, then an impressive release is all but certain.

6.0/10

JACK WEBB