ALBUM REVIEW: Beauty Is A Destructive Angel – Renounced

When an album comes along with such high hopes and expectations attached to it, it’s often difficult to put those notions aside and take a subjective listen. Indeed with Beauty Is A Destructive Angel, the third full length release from RENOUNCED, expectations couldn’t be any higher.

Formed in 2013, the London based metalcore quintet have garnered a dedicated following from both fans and critics alike, cemented by the release of 2016’s Theories of Despair. A sound that owes as much to hardcore titans CONVERGE as it does to metalcore heavyweights POISON THE WELL and KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, with Beauty Is A Destructive Angel the band have honed their sound even further. The riffs are heavier but there is also an added streak of melody running through the tracks too, via the increased, yet restrained use of clean vocals and some truly beautiful guitar flourishes.

Plaintive chords open the album in the form of the melancholic short instrumental Ghosts, a reflective feeling piece that beautifully builds and gives way to Self Inflected where the album begins in earnest. Crunchingly tight riffs, glimmering leads and pinched harmonics adorn the track in typical metalcore fashion, yet it feels fresh, urgent even. This isn’t a band going through the motions – every single note, every single beat feels like it counts.

The band’s hardcore roots shine through on tracks such as In A Years Turning and Calculated Risk, where aggresive (and occasionally spoken) vocals are pushed to the fore bolstered by heavy and harmonious guitar work and a tight-as-you-like rhythm section. Indeed Calculated Risk stands as one of the album’s many highlights with some gorgeous guitar work that culminates in a wistful, yearning acoustic outro that really hits home. Absolutely stunning.

The Rico Conspiracy, the second track to be released from the album, continues with the urgent and relentless feel to the album, with further guttural riffage and machine gun fire drum work laying the perfect foundation for vocalist Daniel Gray as he screams “you’re just another victim of the system”. Album closer In A Statue Of Frozen Glass opens with shimmering guitar arpeggios before exploding into an epic beast of a song complete with emotive verses and stunning chorus melodies – a fitting end to a stunning album that leaves a remarkable impression.

As we enter the final few months of 2019, thoughts will undoubtedly begin to turn to those difficult Album Of The Year lists and it will certainly not be a shock if Beauty Is A Destructive Angel finds itself in many a top ten. Focused, aggressive, melodic and cut through with a self assuredness some bands can only dream of, RENOUNCED have produced not only the best metalcore album of the year but one of the best all round albums of any genre.

Rating: 9/10

Beauty Is A Destructive Angel is out now via Holy Roar Records.

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