A few days ago, I saw a post in a Facebook group asking if anyone did music reviews. Upon answering, the guitarist Jake for the band Every Enemy Alive hit me up and asked if I would do one for their new EP that had dropped the previous week. After spinning the EP a few times, I knew I had to let the world know about these guys. War Within is their debut, self-released EP that was recorded by their bass player Zack Primrose (smart to keep things inside, love when band’s do this). The band’s sound calls upon some of that old school melodic metalcore with nods to As I Lay Dying and Killswitch Engage. This is apparent right of the gate on opening track “Thief”. The track starts off with some killer riffing by the guitarists, each complementing the other. The vocals kick in with a nice, raspy growl that totally fit this style of music. The vocalist Anthony has a nice range, able to hit the highs and the lows with ease. The cleans perfectly fit into the choruses and are done by the bassist Zack. I know what you guys are thinking. These cleans are not the cleans you hear dominating the scene these days. They are sung and are not high pitched or whiny. Next track up is “Don’t Start a Revolution (You Can’t Finish) and what a banger it is. It stats off at a mid-tempo before slowing down to a chuggy chorus with some great layered vocals accentuated by those great cleans. Drummer Zach Richter does a great job maintaining the pace of this track and also sneaking in some great fills. The track ends with a killer breakdown that takes me back to those early days of metalcore that help tie the song all together. “An Amorous Affliction” is my favorite track from the album. It starts off with spoken vocals and with a single guitar before the chug kicks in and a nice ohhhhhh! Chugging along with some killer high vocals from Anthony, this one would definitely get a live crowd excited and moving that pit! The chorus slows down with those amazing cleans to give us a more somber atmosphere before leaping back into the chuggy riffing. The track closes out with the chug being slowed down into a breakdown before fading out. Really killer track. The EP closes with “Midnight Tragedy” and it closes the EP out wonderfully, giving us more of that groovy, chuggy riffing accompanied by the thunderous bass and drumming throughout. The song leaps into a nice solo after the last chorus and takes it all the way to the end, fading out to close out the track and EP. I am really glad I was able to review this great little EP because these guys deserve some attention. I can see a lot of talent in this group and I hope to see more from them in the future. You can check these guys out on all streaming platforms or you can check out the Brewtal Awakenings playlist that I curate every week because I will be adding this EP for the upcoming week of April 29!
- The Metal Architect
