Rise amongst.
This will be the British four piece’s first release under Rising Records, their first full length was a self-release and it’s nice to hear that they haven’t lost any of their rough edges since becoming label bound. Sworn Amongst are quite an interesting prospect because their tuneful metal sound is more groove led than many of the newer metal bands, “And So It Begins” draws more on thrash than the predictable and much too often used classic British metal riffs for inspiration; it has more of an American sound, think Pantera and Machine Head (but without the Nu Metal edge of the latter’s late 90s work).
Obviously with name dropping like that you know this isn’t going to be a light and breezy album, this really has teeth. It’s very heavy right from the opening tune ‘And So It Begins’ but not fast and furious, relying more on a precise technical approach with soaring melodies from the gruff vocals and guitars that occasionally verge on stoner rock.
“And So It Begins” may be a technically proficient record but that doesn’t mean it suffers from a lack of emotion. You feel engaged from the start of the aggressive opener which has some fantastic riffs and is full of hooks and melody that makes it very memorable, luckily this pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the album with the six and a half minute ‘Rules of Engagement’ following on in similar fashion with intense drums, complex guitars and solid vocals. It’s hard to pick but, standout tracks apart from the opener are ‘Herodotus’ which has a complex time signature and arguably the catchiest riff on the album, the anthemic ‘Unleash The Power’ which has a hypnotic rhythm and powerhouse riffs and the excellent closer ‘Rejection’ which is straightforward thrash and one of the more heavy and manic tunes on the record.
It’s really hard to believe that Sworn Amongst are such a young band as this is a really mature sounding album; the tunes are well formed and solid, the chunky riffs from the two guitars are complex and inventive and the vocals are varied.