Take Her To Athena – Chronicles (2013)

Take Her To Athena, the Derby based metalcore quintet, lay up their EP Chronicles for review.  The EP was released back in January of this year and have since released a video for one of the songs on this EP . I am genuinely excited to hear what they have to show me so, headphones on, here we go.

‘The Demise’ is a hell of an opener for an EP and truly caught me of guard with the sheer amount of power in it.  The guitar melody at the beginning is almost enchanting in its repetitiveness and somehow, with so much else going on, it seems to keep your mind centered.

Normally vocals are my biggest grief with metal acts but the front man has won me over in just a few short sentences.  I love how the track starts with an almost mini breakdown, its beautifully brutal.  This is balls out metalcore and reminds me of early Parkway Drive.  I’m not totally sold on the reverb on the last word; but other than that, love this track.

I really like ‘God Complex’, it’s a definite crowd mover but this track really kicks in about half way through.  It starts to have a real identity with the guitar solo, and then it breaks in to this gentle deconstructed version – it’s so unexpected it makes a world of difference.

It picks back up and part of me feels it should have finished there and not continued into another gentle part, but then I would have missed the strings.  Again I’m thrown, I was so not expecting that; it gives the whole song a much darker tone and I love it, even with the strings being synthesized and carrying a tiny bit too long at the end.

The EP continues in this way and I’m yet to find major fault with it.  I can safely say that if this EP doesn’t get Take Her To Athena off the starting point then there are some serious issues with the metal scene.  The skill of the band members is enough to have me in awe, let alone the song writing ability and those vocals!  The beat downs are great as well – bass face, head banging beat downs, brutal.

The next two tracks seem to glide past my already very happy ears, and the time seems to have flown; the continued monster then is this EP.  I am running out of descriptive words to describe just how stunning this EP is.  I have one tiny niggling feeling though; I’m still hearing Parkway Drive.  I just wish the songs had a tad more personal identity.

‘Homecoming’ is the EP finale and as far as I am concerned should be the icing on the cake.  So far my only grievance with this EP is that I get Parkway Drive vibes and some synthesized strings, not bad going.

It appears at the beginning of the track my Parkway Drive feeling isn’t going anywhere any time soon, and while sounding like one of the biggest metalcore bands isn’t necessarily a bad thing it could also have an adverse affect.

This song is another where I really start to appreciate it in the middle area; it starts to sound less like other bands.  Again with this EP it is the guitar solo that gives the song a sense of identity.  I feel a bit cheated at the end of this song, it feels like it ends abruptly – I almost wish the first half wasn’t there and they extended the last half.  The last 50 seconds of this song are the best part and I wish it went on for longer.  The last 50 seconds are everything I want in a finale song and it’s all over so quickly.  I guess from a tactical standpoint it makes the listener want more, but I feel frustrated and like my ending has been stolen.

I really like this EP and I could even go so close to say I love it; the band have clearly worked hard on this and you can tell how much passion has gone into creating it.  Unfortunately, I have to say it, there is a little bit too much Parkway Drive for me and while being compared to a massive band like that isn’t a bad thing, in fact it’s a great thing, I just feel like the music needs a bit more of its own style.  The guitar solos really bring out something special in this band and if they could have that something for all sections, they would be my favorite band of all time.

However, I would 100% see this band live, I genuinely think it would be an amazing show and everyone please go buy this EP because it is stunning and is everything metalcore should be.  The song writing and technical ability of the band is amazing and I haven’t heard vocals like that in a long time, truly outstanding.  Just make the ending of ‘Homecoming’ longer!!