ALBUM REVIEW: A Breed Apart – Power Of Fear

Hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and freshly formed out of the finest US Steel, the snarling, metallic river hounds POWER OF FEAR have announced themselves on the hardcore world stage. Taking influence from the hardcore greats HATEBREED and the uncompromising brutality of COLD AS LIFE, the band’s debut album A Breed Apart comprises nine unforgiving and merciless tracks that will have you throwing around your furniture, dragging your knuckles and caveman stomping around the room. 

With chaotic and violent riffing, the main focus of A Breed Apart is the effect of negative human interactions. Utilising their brutal sound as an extremely raged-filled outlet, POWER OF FEAR waste no time in absolutely obliterating your ear drums with heavy distortion and crushing half time drum grooves. The rather aptly named vocalist Barker snarls and growls down the microphone with a thuggish menace, spitting his relatable lyrics straight into your face. 

Despite being a relatively fresh band, their sound is anything but amateur. POWER OF FEAR play with a ferocity and cohesiveness that is similar to the likes of metallic hardcore’s big guns HARMS WAY, JESUS PIECE and LEFT BEHIND. The relentlessly high energy is maintained throughout A Breed Apart’s entirety and will leave you winded by the end of it in the best way possible. 

There is a definitive tough guy attitude to this record which gives it its charm, calling out all those who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. People’s apathy towards something or an overwhelmingly defeatist attitude is enough to cause a visceral rage inside the calmest of people. It gradually builds like a pressure cooker and you are left red faced and angry. However, POWER OF FEAR have you covered, as they blow the lid off this pressure cooker with plenty of furious beatdowns, you can relieve your infinite frustration at those negative interactions.

American metallic hardcore is currently in the midst of an incredibly strong wave of creativity and experimentalism. This is exemplified by the glitchy noises of CODE ORANGE and the positively jarring soundscapes of KNOCKED LOOSE, but it has also seen a surge in bands specialising in chaotic beatdown style riffs, meaning it can be hard to stand out in either scenario. POWER OF FEAR have made a concerted effort to separate themselves from the pack, having being influenced by the likes of funk and jazz. As a result, the band’s riffs have a little more bounce and more catchy rhythmic hooks to those of their competitors. 

Despite that small difference, even though A Breed Apart is a strong debut album it feels like it has been done before. While the initial first impression feels like a bludgeon straight to the nose, the album inevitably falls into the similar grooves and with metallic hardcore in the strong place that it is at the moment, you have to do a little bit more to stand out. With that in mind A Breed Apart feels like your standard metallic hardcore album that could get lost in a crowded market. However, there is a strong potential for something more here. One example would be with some of the thrashier aspects of the album, which leave a potential channel open to go down the POWER TRIP route and crossover with thrash. 

The album opens up with an imposing intro track that brings the beatdown from the very first riff. Heavy grooves and jarring distortion show you what POWER OF FEAR are all about. All Alone is where things really kick off; thrashy and uncompromising, it is an intimidating track that gets right up in your face and starts to push you around. Eye To Eye feels like one of the ultimate mosh pit songs where you eye up your target in the wall of death and give it your all to mosh them into next week. The title track and Tears Of Shame continue the chaos, introducing gang chants and swirling circle pit riffs. Walk The Walk opens with an apt film snippet about people running their mouth before launching into one of the heavier beatdowns on the album. Shit Could Be Worse sees those thrash influences come through, this crossover suits the band’s frenzied speed. You Vs. Us resumes the caveman beatdown riffs and then POWER OF FEAR kick you while you’re down with the crushing album closer Empty Threats. 

POWER OF FEAR have unleashed a crushing debut; A Breed Apart has everything you could possibly need in a knuckle dragging hardcore album. A tight and cohesive performance from start to finish that will have you stomping around the room with reckless abandon. 

Rating: 7/10

A Breed Apart is set for release on June 30th via DAZE.

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