ALBUM REVIEW: The Weight That Holds Me Here – Immerse

It takes all of 20 seconds for IMMERSE to get heads banging on The Weight That Holds Me Here. The album’s first track Vile opens with a lone guitar riff that’s soon joined by the full band for some serious metalcore bounce. It’s something they pull off time and again on the record, and a feature which grants it a certain instantaneous quality. Of course, metalcore can mean a fair few things at this point, but if you like it catchy, polished and crammed full of chugging riffs, The Weight… is definitely a record for you.

To be honest, longer term fans of IMMERSE probably weren’t expecting much else. The Bristol-based four-piece had already more than delivered the riffs on their 2018 debut Suffer. That record was a short, solid, melodic metalcore offering sure to please fans of bands like OF MICE & MEN and A DAY TO REMEMBER. This album is much the same, albeit a fair bit longer at 36 minutes compared to its predecessor’s 25.

As well as big stompy riffs, another modern metalcore staple IMMERSE have absolutely no problems with on The Weight… is the massive clean vocal chorus. The first of these appears on the album’s second track, Burn, but far stronger examples follow as the record progresses. One of the best is that of fourth track Southbound, which even leans more towards the straight-up pop-punk of a band like NEW FOUND GLORY. Sure, it’s a touch cheesy, but it’s also catchy as hell and hard not to sing along to. The same is true of the album’s closing track Here’s Hoping. In both cases, these hooks turn the songs they appear on into firm album highlights.

Unlike a lot of metalcore records nowadays, one thing The Weight… definitely achieves is a solid degree of dynamic variation. This becomes clear pretty early on, with both Vile and Burn featuring moments of relative quiet amid the ferocity. It’s even more obvious on third track Withyou, which juxtaposes floating ethereal verses with explosions of expansive metalcore savagery. The record also features several pieces which stay mellow throughout, like the delicate and melodic fifth track More. This one relies entirely on clean guitars and vocals combined with distant atmospherics and textures. It’s a nice break in proceedings which further sharpens the raging Redshade which follows – another highlight of the record.

Eighth track Lights is similarly softer, although admittedly not as good. For the most part, it rolls along as an emotional ballad-type piece, but ultimately it just feels bland. It gets a slight lift at the end with a hard-hitting melodic climax, but this feels like too little too late at the end of the longest song on the record. The album’s final quieter piece, tenth track Mon Seul, is more of an interlude. It clocks in at less than 90 seconds and takes the form of delicate pianos backed by chirping birds. It’s a perfectly nice little piece, if not slightly throwaway.

Even if it doesn’t all land, variation in music like this is always welcome. That said, it remains hard to get away from the fact that The Weight That Holds Me doesn’t feel like much we haven’t heard before. IMMERSE are definitely less derivative than some, but there are a still fair few bands who do a very similar thing. Then again, if you’re a fan of those bands, it’s unlikely you’ll find much to complain about here. IMMERSE clearly know their way around the essentials, and The Weight… at least indicates that they’re up for going beyond that too. If they do push themselves even more going forward then it won’t take much for them to stand out from the pack. For now though, The Weight That Holds Me at least ensures that they’re keeping up.

Rating: 7/10

The Weight That Holds Me Here is set for release on March 26th via self-release.

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