UNEARTH take aim at the Trump regime.
Extinction(s)
CENTURY MEDIA
Metalcore insurgents escape creative fatigue
UsIng mUsIC To directly rage against Trump’s America has proven to be a risky venture for metal bands. Half the time, it can help the group in question evolve by imbuing their music with a mix of acerbic lyricism and straight-shooting anger. Meanwhile, in other cases, it comes across as a mere crutch, clumsily employed with little finesse so that songwriters can capitalise on increasing political divides to appear rebellious or edgy.
Happily, Extinction(s) falls into the former category. Unearth unabashedly use their seventh release as a serrated hunting knife that hacks away at self-serving demagogues, ‘alternative facts’, hatemongering and climate change denial. Simultaneously, the album never feels like a pandering affair desperately searching for the approval of likeminded thinkers; its attacks on nihilistic ideologies are delivered via metalcore tracks that resonate more with their breakdowns and melodeathinspired riffing than with their subject matter.
Opening cut Incinerate establishes Extinction(s)’s bread and butter: Buz McGrath’s fingers dance all over his fretboard, while Trevor Phipps incessantly roars his way through both crushing verses and more anthemic choruses. The rhythms are as energised as longtime fans have come to expect, forming a continuous, fast-paced backbone. It’s a simple and, at times, even generic metalcore formula, yet Unearth inject just enough wrinkles to prevent themselves from falling into a pit of banality. Cultivation Of Infection and King Of The Arctic both commence to the sound of tranquil, ominous guitarwork, Sidewinder carries a whiff of Meshuggah about it and One
With The Sun concludes the album with a rare clean-sung bridge, as well as a fix of symphonic grandeur.
Despite occasionally stumbling into one-trick pony status, Extinction(s) is a vitriolic and worthy addition to Unearth’s unstoppable hot streak, which has remained strong ever since In The Eyes Of Fire.