ALBUM REVIEW: Rapture – Betraying The Martyrs
Four albums into their low tuned, mouth splitting brand of metalcore – BETRAYING THE MARTYRS seem to have their musical blueprint set in stone. Riffing their way through our airwaves for 8 years now – the sextet have found a zenith of sound that has kept their metalcore crusade alive for the better part of a decade now. The Parisians lack of deviation from their pre-existing rhythms have allowed them to build the kind of fan base that though not world conquering, would happily die for the cause. It’s this element of the six-piece’s popularity which makes their avoidance of experimentation understandable. But by the time latest record Rapture blasts its last note, you can’t help but feel a strong sense that the bands blueprint formula has started to become overtly tired.
While there are elements of Rapture that make it a relatively palatable listen – it’s hard to escape that by this point – BETRAYING THE MARTYRS’ creativity has wavered. Where bands like POLARIS, CURRENTS, and THOUSAND BELOW have stepped up their ability when it comes to the blending of two vocal styles within the confines of metal, the Frenchmen seem to have been stuck in third gear for quite some time now, and Rapture exposes this.
Outside of some astonishing riff work on the likes of The Sound Of Letting You Go and The Swarm from guitarists Baptiste Vigier and Lucas D’angelo it’s really quite a challenge to find a highlight worth shouting about on Rapture. Even when you add in the keyboards of Victor Guillet which you would hope would add some ingenuity into the records core – this is an album that feels flat for almost its entire run.
The low tuned pummelling of Eternal Machine and Incarcerated are enough to catch the ear of those listening solely for bloodletting, but both lack the kind of killer chorus that can link the vocal contrasts of the tracks together. The same can be said for Imagine and The Iron Gates too, and before long it becomes evident that Rapture has plenty of intent and little delivery. It makes the album strike as your standard, by the numbers metalcore record, which, in a time where experimentation is becoming rife – makes Rapture stick out like it’s covered in luminous paint.
Though BETRAYING THE MARTYRS tick several of the boxes on the checklist of metalcore, they’re yet to produce a work of art that puts them as front runners in the genre. And Rapture does little for the band outside of chucking in a couple of decent breakdowns, and impressive guitar lines into their back catalogue. If you were wondering why BETRAYING THE MARTYRS most noteworthy moment in the spotlight by some distance was their cover of a wildly popular pop song – Rapture answers that question for you in abundance.
Rating: 5/10
Rapture is set for release September 13th via Sumerian Records.
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