ALBUM REVIEW: Between You & Me – InVisions
When Yorkshire metalcore mob INVISIONS released their debut record Never Nothing in 2017 they sounded like little more than sub-genre cannon fodder, a band that neither flattered nor disgraced themselves with their core lead swings. It’s a relief then that their newest offering, Between You & Me, is an unexpected, yet wholly welcome leap forward in terms of quality, songwriting, and breakdown nous.
Where its predecessor tried to tick too many boxes at once, Between You & Me is a metalcore/deathcore album in almost every sense of the word. INVISIONS spend little time away from sounding like an assault charge throughout this record, and while this down-tuned musical earthquake doesn’t make them unique; it certainly makes them a rough listen to fans of the sub-genre.
Between You & Me remains a proverbial one stop shop of brutality throughout its play-time. The frenetic, rupturing guitar lines of Heretic collide extravagantly against the low and slow growls of Ben Ville, while Too Little, Too Late has the kind of carnivore lead opening that could start a mosh-pit in a church. You feel the influences of THY ART IS MURDER, AFTER THE BURIAL, and even VEIL OF MAYA circle Between You & Me regularly – if you’re a fan of extreme music they’ll be at least something for you here. The breakdowns of LifeLost and Memorium are as brutal as they are refined, and it’s refreshing to see INVISIONS‘ structural ascent in the last 18 months in terms of unabashed ferocity.
While this record certainly packs a damaging punch in its heavy output – the quartet still aren’t the finished product just yet. It’s undoubtedly impressive that the entire vocal mantle is taken by Ville and his ability to effortlessly hop between squeals, growls, and melodic chimes is at times baffling. However the record is often plagued by choruses that make nowhere near the same impact as the tones at precede them, with the closing one-two of Down & Out and Destined To Fall the most prominent victims.
Get hooked in by the blistering beat-downs that rear their pungent heads from start to finish on Between You & Me though and you’ll find yourself an album that is wholeheartedly better than it has any right to be. Even when the NSFW lyrics on tracks like Too Far Gone push the band dangerously close to sounding like a gimmick, they’re redeemed by an unrelenting desire to riff your skull into oblivion.
The fact is that this record cannot be looked at as anything other than a raging success for INVISIONS. 18 months ago they sounded like another ripple in a whirlpool of bands that already figured themselves out. Between You & Me cuts out all almost every fragment of placid indecisiveness from Never Nothing and creates an 11 song slaughterhouse of solos, breakdowns, and crunching riffs. If the metalcore world were sleeping on INVISIONS in 2017, it’s about to get a rude awakening.
Rating: 7/10
Between You & Me is set for release February 8th via Stay Sick Recordings.
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