ALBUM REVIEW: This Place Only Brings Death – Heart Of A Coward

There’s a subtle but noticeable difference between This Place Only Brings Death and the previous HEART OF A COWARD album. 2019’s The Disconnect saw the Milton Keynes five-piece in a state of transition, popular frontman Jamie Graham having left and been replaced with former NO CONSEQUENCE singer Kaan Tasan. It was a terrific record and very well received here at DS towers, but their newest release improves upon it. This Place Only Brings Death sounds like a band revitalised, confident and less anxious about whether their fanbase will reject them with a different vocalist.

So, while devotees of their old singer might still be sulking online, they’re going to miss out on a cracking album. HEART OF A COWARD have been toiling away in the UK underground for over a decade now and developed into highly competent practitioners of modern metalcore. The songs here are leaner and more tightly constructed, rarely exceeding four minutes in length but still retaining a progressive edge. Some of the playing is highly technical, but the focus is primarily on executing well-crafted anthems rather than wowing us with their dexterity. HEART OF A COWARD might have hovered on the fringes of djent for a while, but they’ve drifted a bit further away.

Despite a few downbeat lyrics, these songs are also bursting with vitality. Tracks like Surrender To Failure and Dehumanise would be as depressing as watching Grave Of The Fireflies on the same day that your puppy dies if they weren’t so energetic and cathartic. The sense of time marching us to our inevitable deaths hangs over them, but at the same time, they’re driving and aggressively pleasing tracks too.

And while it’s something of a cliché, they’ve got a keen grasp on how melodies work. Decay is a mix of soothing tunefulness and fist-clenching machismo, centred around a chorus that could have been lifted from a ballad. There’s also an eyebrow-raising introduction to Hex, a late-in-the-track-list highlight that briefly crosses into synthwave before plunging back into the maelstrom. This one seems destined to become a fan favourite as soon as it gets aired live.

At just shy of 40 minutes, This Place Only Brings Death doesn’t waste a second. In fact, it probably could have done being a track longer as the closing All Life Is Finite isn’t quite epic enough to round it off. As a whole though, their second album with Tasan on the mic is a highly enjoyable slice of British metalcore. Some of their earlier albums felt like song collections, whereas this is a cohesive body of work without the slightest hint of filler. They’ve been the UK metal scene’s hardworking underdogs for too long now and with luck, this will see their stock rise higher.

Rating: 8/10

This Place Brings Only Death is set for release on September 22nd via Arising Empire.

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