Nodes of Ranvier fail to get this reviewers nerves excited.
Metalcore. Not a scene or genre I can claim to be an adherent to, whilst perhaps in theory the idea of mixing Metal and Hardcore music, although not to my tastes, could be an interesting and inventive one. However I find mostly mostly repetitive song writing, simple song structure and a lack of anything to grab the listener and not let go typify most bands of this genre. Besides the fact that this metalcore style is currently in fashion, perhaps. Although Nodes of Ranvier clearly display a passion for what they do and show no lack of effort, 'The Years To Come' has not swayed my opinion at all.
Opener 'The Renewal' starts in a relatively promising manner - the skills of the band are apparent and you can see, at least on this track, some inventiveness in style although their influences (Metallica, Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold) are already quite painfully obvious which is somewhat distracting in really ascertaining Nodes of Ranvier's identity. It is a shame, as this unfortunately short track is a rather misleading prelude into an exercise in mundanity.
However besides brief moments of individuality and enjoyable styles there is little this CD had to offer me. Often inventiveness is simply traded for the more obvious heavy riffs, which whilst enjoyable in their own right, simply blend into one another when used so liberally. The real marker of the lack of musical diversity on offer is the fact that on first listening I simply could not distinguish any one track from another in terms of structure or inventiveness. The real thing that irritated me on this CD, perhaps unfairly, is the use of clean (albeit whiney) vocals with very generic "cookie monster" growls. This is somewhat of an overused concept in US bands of the moment and its inclusion simply added to my somewhat lacklustre impression of this CD
Overall, as I have already said, this CD is nothing new or fresh to convince me from my wicket Metalcore-disdaining ways and unless you are a real ardent fan of the genre this CD, whilst enjoyable, is probably not an essential release for your shelf. In a market already saturated with many, many similar bands, a release such as this, which is in itself of an appreciable quality, does not have enough striking or unique features to stand out well enough. Nodes of Ranvier, in my personal estimation, is not a CD I myself, or few others, will be listening to in the years to come.