EP REVIEW: Prosper – Dream Awake

Your ability to relish your ingestion Prosper, the five track offering from Irish metalcore upstarts DREAM AWAKE, hinges on how much modern/tech metalcore you’ve exposed yourself to recently. This is an EP almost laser targeted at those who either like their metal to stick to a formula and not dare break it, or are yet to discover early 2010’s metalcore and the cacophony of bands that sprouted from its ascendancy.

There’s actually nothing necessarily that you can point out as problematic here. The four piece weave in and out of a tight-knit structure throughout Prosper and deliver your A-typical blend of breakdowns, neck snaps, and crescendo choruses on the likes of Inanimate perfectly efficiently. The title track stands to attention too, vocalist Conor Kelly adds tweaks to his melodic chimes that embrace the low notes around him just enough to make the two a nice fit.

The problem here is that with an EP as derivative of its forefathers as Prosper often is, it’s difficult to not subconsciously put the record in positions of comparison that are unfair to it. And too often DREAM AWAKE just make you want to listen to NORTHLANE or IN HEARTS WAKE – two bands that far surpass the quartet in terms of resources and experience. In fairness, there’s a laundry list of bands that have made a name for themselves by replicating this exact same concept, and DREAM AWAKE aren’t too late to the party to make an impact yet, but their window of opportunity might be slim.

Prosper is an ill-offensive, by the numbers metalcore effort that sits more than adequately against some of its peers, and for the time being it could serve DREAM AWAKE well. With that said though, what comes next from this band has all of a sudden become of grave importance. If you’re going to re-create what has existed in droves before: you either need to be capable of standing toe to toe with your contemporaries, or be at least somewhat unique – and Prosper does neither.

Rating: 6/10

Prosper is out now via self release. 

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