EP REVIEW: Madness/Medicine – As Paradise Falls

AS PARADISE FALLS’ new five-track EP Madness/Medicine does a lot of things well if never really hitting a home run. It’s a jack of all trades project that ticks a lot of boxes without ever exploding out of them, making for an enjoyable listening experience but lacking a real personality that will have you crawling back for more. 

Clocking in around the 15-minute mark, Madness/Medicine starts on solid ground but never really ascends past that initial impression. The EP’s sound, which borrows heavily from the major tropes of modern metalcore and deathcore, feels a little too much like sitting on the fence. There are some electronics that though not offensive, don’t feel all that integral to the sound. There are also a lot of djenty riffs which is either a positive or a turn off depending on your level of saturation for that sound, and there’s even a deathcore fade out before a breakdown comes in with a monster noise.

Whilst most of these tropes come across just a bit safe and uninteresting, the moments where they do commit to something are comfortably the best. The drumming gets moments to shine in between the djent sections, there is just more of it needed to really make an indent on the overall sound. The blast that comes in on Captain Hero in particular is one of the EP’s moments that will grab you and shake you around a bit. Elsewhere, sections that don’t feel so predictable stand out as well like the twiddly ANIMALS AS LEADERS style guitar passages on Mechanical Hannibals. Whilst neither of these examples are out of the blue creativity for the genre this band is in, they do stand out as elements that catch your attention a bit more with some added excitement.

Whilst Madness/Medicine is by no means a collection of poor songs, it feels very weighed down by the conventions of popular modern metal. Its 15-minute runtime feels largely forgettable and that’s because you’ve heard it before. If the best elements from this EP go into a more focused album release with a clearer identity, that could show this project to be a building block of sorts but that is all it strives to be in its current state.

Rating: 5/10

Madness/Medicine is set for release on September 23rd via Eclipse Records.

Like AS PARADISE FALLS on Facebook.