### This Or The Apocalypse: Monuments

#### 27/10/08 || Euthanatos

American band, plays a blend of hardcore and metal. If it smells like shit and looks like shit, do you have to taste it to know it’s shit? I don’t think so. I think this is the hundredth metalcore album I’ve received this week, and well, I guess that’s saying something about the genre right there. It really is a shame, because the pioneers of this so-called new wave of American metal had some killer ideas and put out some great albums. Now come the bandwagon kids, and Christ, it’s painfully obvious when too much it just too damn fucking much.

Everything here is basically a copy and paste of everything you’ve heard in metalcore before. Granted, This or the Apocalypse try and get closer to some of their more daring peers, like The Dillinger Escape Plan, but that doesn’t mean that they are necessarily successful. Once again, the musicianship is there, but the ideas are so stale and all over the place, apparently no one produced this, as it has no direction other than “let’s make the sound that’s hip right now!”.

There is some intricate guitar work here, stuff that doesn’t quite fit the mold and tries to break free from the song structures. You know, much like The Dillinger Escape plan does. The vocals are also a mix of metal shrieks and hardcore screams. You know, just like The Dillinger Escape Plan does.

Not trash, but definitely needs grooming and maturing. The world is too small for copycats these days, fellas.

The cover: Stunning. No, really, the imagery here is really striking. Giving them an extra point just because of that. I’m a sucker for good covers.

4 ill-fated escape plans out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2008
- Label: Lifeforce
- Website: This or the Apocalypse MySpace
- Band
- Rick Armellino: vocals
- Jack Esbenshade: guitars
- Rodney Phillips: guitars
- Grant McFarland: drums
- Sean Hennessey: bass

- Tracklist
- 01. No Horizons
- 02. Monuments
- 03. Two Wars
- 04. We Are Debt
- 05. Geist
- 06. Architeuthis
- 07. The Polymath
- 08. Memento Mori
- 09. Mauna Kea
- 10. Elegiac