Impressive.
This Be The Verse are a London based band who in their short run since their inception in 2014 have made incredibly large steps in impressing the vast majority of those who've become exposed to their addictive, frenetic style of music. The EP titled The Consequences released two years ago was an impressive introduction, containing a huge level of promise and potential for what This Be The Verse could go on to achieve in the future. Where the EP was impressive in laying out a path for them, no one could have predicted this band were going to stride forward with such overwhelming confidence and ability to release an album which absolutely should be dropping in to some of those end of year lists. We've said that a lot this year, let's face it 2016 has been extraordinary in comparison to the rest of this decade as far as great releases are concerned, but the fact that this does stand out to sit amongst some of the big guns of this year says a hell of a lot.
It's difficult to actually describe the music produced by This Be The Verse with any kind of simplicity. They're like a stew put together with ingredients containing a couple of chopped slices of Dillinger Escape Plan, a sprinkle of Nine Inch Nails, a dab of Black Peaks and Heck with a Faith No More garnish. Pulling out big comparisons there, but you would only need to be about two or three tracks in to be completely on board with what we're talking about. With such an array of influences there is of course that risk that it would sound a complete messy, but under the direction of Cyrus King the composure and controlled level of chaos is frankly staggering across the whole album.
Some of the key highlights on the album include the riff heavy opening track Stubborn Youth which jerks you around in a bubble of madness for five minutes, leaving you in a complete state of being both overwhelmed by how GOOD this sounds but where on earth it's going to go next. The third track Consequences has a similarly enchanting element to it. The militant industrial beat at it's core makes for incredibly addictive listening also lending well to the Hardcore Punk aggression laid on top. In the latter stages of the album the tracks are less in your face and far more brooding with songs like My OST sounding like Mechanical Animals era Marilyn Manson.
With the fact that Cyrus King is himself a producer, the production quality across the album is incredibly high. The band also brought in Steve Sears who's worked with the likes of Gallows, Krokodil and The Hell in the past. Whilst there are Industrial elements throughout, it doesn't sound overly robotic or clean in any way, consistently lending a lot of time to allow for the rough edges needed for the frenetic Math-y sound.
Overall then this is a very impressive debut full length record which will almost certainly stand the test of time once the dust settles on this borderline ridiculous year. The songwriting is at times challenging as it throws you across so many different styles but when you break down the simplicity of the structure within some of these tracks you really understand why this makes for such infectious, addictive listening. Black Peaks set the mark with their album earlier this year, This Be The Verse could (and should) very well make similar impact.