OF MICE & MEN

Earthandsky rise

OC’S metalcore mavens fail to break new ground

Despite a formidable performance from frontman Aaron Pauley, OM&M’S 2018 album, Defy, was forgettable, by-thenumbers metalcore, the band struggling to maintain their mojo in the wake of Austin Carlile’s departure. The lead-up to Earthandsky has been more positive, its spate of singles, How To Survive, Mushroom Cloud and

Earth & Sky, easily OM&M’S heaviest tracks since 2014’s

Restoring Force. So it’s frustrating that, after that first initial onslaught, tracks like The Mountain and

Meltdown feel so generic and uninspired, or in the case of As We Suffocate, so ruddy pedestrian. For those who have already checked out, this is unlikely to be the record that hooks them back in.

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FOR FANS OF: Bullet For My Valentine, 5FDP, Wage War DANNII LEIVERS