### Sworn Amongst: Severance

#### 22/02/10 || Smalley

For a band that’s supposed to be thrash, Sworn Amongst doesn’t do much thrashing on “Severance”, instead, coming off more like a generic hardcore group, one with an unfortunately artificial, overly-processed production. The guitar sound is weak, and the drums are neutered of any strength they could’ve had with their weak, triggered sound. The lead vocals here are also annoying, with very average tough guy “growling”, and a tendency by the frontman to make lots of “WOW-A!” shouts, a’la Rob from Machine Head.

The gang vocals in the background are even worse, coming off like a bunch of meatheads who’re just trying to get the singer psyched-up as he pumps the iron, and the riffs on “Severance” sound like they’re trying to get off the ground, trying to reach Thrash City, but continually fall short of that, so the songwriting all throughout the record remains rather average, boring, and disengaging.

To go back to the sound of the album, at least the lead guitar work sounds okay, but that doesn’t help a whole lot; don’t metal bands today realize that these glossy, synthetic productions rob their music of necessary power?

Anyway, if you’re interested in listening to “Severance”, and end up actually liking it, then you’re no metalhead I wanna be friends with, so please, stay away. And as for this album, consider it deleted from my iTunes, and consider myself disinterested in any future releases from Sworn (not that I was very interested in them in the first place).

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Rising Records
- Website: www.swornamongst.co.uk
- Band
- Liam Liddell: vocals, guitar
- Harvey Fox: lead guitar
- Rob Ellwood: bass
- Jonny Harper: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Severance
- 02. Denounced
- 03. Out Of Line (Scathing Injustice)
- 04. Exploited (Systematically)
- 05. Darkness
- 06. Scratch The Surface
- 07. Useless
- 08. Crimson
- 09. The Storm
- 10. Numb