Orange County's
Scars of Tomorrow makes its Victory Records debut with Rope Tied to the Trigger, a furious metalcore statement if there ever was one. The fivesome rocks a thick format indebted to
Deftones as much as death metal, committed to layering muscular East Coast hardcore (
Sick of It All,
Hatebreed) rhythms inside wind-whipping technical efficiency. And it works. Tracks like "To Watch You Burn," "As We Close," and "Will Hell Arise" blend these influences into a volatile, subcutaneously formidable groove -- just like trouble, you feel it before you see it. Other highlights include the furious changes of "Face of Fear" and the interplay of melody and madness during "Suffocating Words," which rips from hardcore to searing metal chording and back to a rousing melody inside four minutes.
Scars of Tomorrow's principals are obviously in a lot of emotional pain, or at least angry -- there's all that guttural screaming, after all. But there will be a point in metalcore's future when its busted inkwell of brutal descriptors will run dry. "Burn," "hell," "fear," "dying," "abandonment" -- they're all present and accounted for in Rope Tied to the Trigger's lyrics and titles. There's no denying
Scars of Tomorrow's blistering passion. But why not opt for a different raft of adjectives, to make that passion and power stand apart from the jaws-snapping pack? ~ Johnny Loftus