Label - Anarchy Black
Release Date - 5 February 2022
Words- Chris Fletcher
Metalcore these days can give you a particular impression of what to expect from a record, and although Birmingham five piece A Beautiful Retribution identify as such, this is not your typical modern day metalcore album content to repeat a harsh verse/clean chorus, breakdown and repeat pattern. Although these elements are used here, the album has more in common with early 2000s Roadrunner Records releases. This is not to say the album sounds dated however, metal bangers that make you want to pump your first will always be on trend.
Speaking of harsh/clean vocal dynamics, the harsh vocals on display, (notably on ‘What Doesn’t Kill You’) pay homage to Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe whilst anthemic style choruses such as that on title track ‘I Am The Poison’ would be at home on any modern day Trivium record. This is meant as high praise, and although the band wears their influences very much on their sleeve, they manage to blend them together to a high standard that shows a band with a ton of potential.
Album opener ‘Out Of Time’ starts with a piano intro followed by electronics reminiscent of Linkin Park, however the track soon kicks in with a pounding riff, accompanied with pinch harmonics that will give fans of Killswitch Engage and Machine Head a warm fuzzy feeling. And with this, we’re off.
Overall we have ten tracks of good quality heavy metal, brimming with soaring solos, groovy riffs and big choruses that would sound lovely on any festival stage. Accompanying these elements is a drum sound and a production job that allow the band's quality to shine through. A fair criticism of this album though is that there is nothing here that you haven’t heard before and for some people this could be a deal breaker.
This album isn’t going to set the world on fire, and there’s nothing groundbreaking about what it does. However, what it does do it does very well. Sometimes you just want to bang your head and you can do much worse than ‘I Am The Poison’ and there’s a broad appeal to what the band offers which shows a real statement of intent, leaving you excited to see where they can go from here. If this is what the band are able to achieve with a self-released debut album, then surely the sky's the limit going forward.
7/10
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