ALBUM REVIEW: Echo – Of Mice & Men

A lot of releases from metalcore and other sub-metal genre bands that have been conceived during the pandemic encompass some form of resilience; we’re thankful we’re here and have been through these trials and tribulations. But Echo – a culmination of the EPs OF MICE & MEN have released in 2021 as well as four new tracks – feels like the only pandemic baby to validate the feelings of the nation; the panic, the anguish, the existential dread, with a sprinkle of glittered hope.

Timeless (released in February) and Bloom (released in May) built the foundations of Echo. The three tracks from each form the first six tracks on the record in their original orders, and this blends the album’s vision seamlessly together with the last three tracks of what would be their third EP, Ad Infinitum, plus a bonus cover of CROSBY, STILLS AND NASH’s Helplessly Hoping, with no obvious leaps from EP to EP.

When the four-piece released EARTHANDSKY in 2019, it quickly became a fan favourite for bringing the band’s recognisable riffs and brutal honesty in lyrics enshrined in pure aggression. It was an album designed for the stage, for the mosh pits, but COVID-19 took that away. And as the world sat locked behind their doors paralysing people in a suspended animation of their own lives, Echo was written across Zoom and Twitch and designed to be heard in headphones, creating an immersive atmosphere to be enjoyed wherever one finds themselves.

Carrying on from Pulling Teeth, the final track on Bloom, comes Mosaic, the first of the new tracks on this record. Its biblical lyrics scream at the listener that our Eden is invaded and that our hearts are tainted, asking how can we move past it if we don’t give up our human instinct of combativeness and face our judgement by paying the price for our actions. One of the more aggressive teachings of Matthew, this version is dripping in melodeath chugging riffs from duo Phil Manansala and Alan Ashby, and Aaron Pauley’s screams pull no punches. If this were the opener to a third EP rather than track seven, it would force you to sit up and listen, and wouldn’t apologise for perforating an ear drum in the process.

Fighting Gravity opens with some of the band’s newly acquired electronica skill which weaves throughout the release like ivy on a mature building; only showing growth with the ebb and flow of the metalcore scene. Wordsmith Pauley again tackles the human condition – this time the need to learn to live and let go. Favouring cleaner vocals and falsettos, this track gives the usual catharsis while also making way to showcase the inventive drumming from Valentino Arteaga.

Title track Echo takes the aggressive nature of track seven and the melodic vocal lines of track eight and wraps them into one. The uncomplicated guitar riffs help to echo the roots of the Californian quartet at their core and the band’s past releases, but with the addition of the breakdowns of the eerily spoken samples it regains its complexity and transverses between the band’s own diversity from verse to chorus and back again. Finally, closing out the album is the cover of Hopelessly Hoping. Ditching the track’s original acoustic guitar backing in favour of strings and ramping up the falsetto and paying tribute to the original harmonious tones only serves the multi-layered and reverb vocal to offer that final sprinkling of glittered hope, hidden among saddened lyrics of love and adoration.

For an album that has essentially been slowly released over the past 10 months, Echo is a worthy successor to EARTHANDSKY, and when the world has returned to some sense of normality because we’ve paid for our sins and changed our ways, many of these tracks will bleed into OF MICE & MEN‘s setlist regardless of having been written for the digital and isolated age.

Rating: 8/10

Echo is set for release on December 3rd via SharpTone Records.

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