The UK metalcore scene is in rude health at the minute and there's currently nothing cooler than singing about razors and wings and dark nights and darker blood over crunching breakdowns and riotous thrash riffs. South East hardcore kids Love That Kills seem to be on to a winner with this, their debut release, and with quite a history already behind them (you may recognise former members of XcanaanX, Raiden, and The Break In), the pressure is on.

The title track slips into spooky atmospherics, 'The Great Depression' tries to forge some melody from the madness and 'Head First...', exploding with rapier-sharp riffs and broken-hearted spoken words, employs all the catchier tricks of the metalcore trade. There are few concessions to any softer edge. Opener 'Bloodless' is brilliantly venomous and landslide-heavy, and other tracks find huge and snarling guitars, spit-soaked sore-throat vocals and colossal rhythm section attacks crashing into each other throughout.

However, none of this is new, and perhaps because of all the fashionable fodder on show, ...To Cruel Nails Surrendered is a record so familiar-sounding that it could be cuts rescued from the studio floor of wherever Poison The Well, Eighteen Visions or Underoath recorded their debuts. These are generic songs rather than weak ones, and still sound like they'd be positively thrilling in the live arena, but, like so many of rock's new crop, too many comparisons can be drawn to bands doing the exact same thing bigger and better elsewhere.

This may only be the beginning of something much greater; Love That Kills can obviously pen some fine tunes, but to escape the toilet touring circuit and make an impact above local level they really need to search for inspiration outside of their own CD collections.

Rating: 3/5 by Simon T Diplock

Tracklisting

1. Bloodless
2. The Great Depression
3. Razor Blade Smile
4. Head First Straight From Hell
5. Hangmans Game
6. ...To Cruel Nails Surrendered

Further links

In At The Deep End (iatde.com)

Official site of In At The Deep End Records, home to Beecher, NCF, Send More Paramedics, and more...

Love That Kills.com

Official site of South East metalcore mob