Review of Alove For Enemies - Resistance

Synopsis:

Yup, I gots me another Christian hardcore record.

Review:

The first two releases from Alove For Enemies , the Broken Pledge EP and their debut album, The Harvest, did nothing for me at all; generic chuggariffic Christian hardcore with little or no character. However, with Resistance, Alove For Enemies seem to have found ‘it’.

Though certainly not a groundbreaking, year end list type album, as it is still just burly metallic hardcore, Resistance is for what it is, a damn fine hardcore record. Everything has been upped from The Harvest; an ultra beefy production, sterner, more direct riffage, silly heavy breakdowns and a few effective introspective, ‘clean’ interludes, all wrapped up in the band’s Christian themes.

Though Hatebreed, Full Blown Chaos and Terror may get all the attention for their respective releases in the genre, I I have actually been giving this (and Bloodshot’s Ultimate Hatred) considerably more air time. The breakdowns are downright heavy, the song structures are adequately varied and deliver everything from strained, terse harmonies (“Wishes For the Cloths of Heaven”, “Welcome to the Underground”, “Will of Faith”, “Tread on my Dreams”), short, typical hardcore stabs (“Call it Faith”, “Rise of The Phoenix”), instrumental grace (“Emotion Is Chaos”) and incredibly satisfying, lumbering, monolithic breakdowns (“Ec-10", “The Resistance”, “Will of Faith”, “Tread on My Dreams”, “Hall of Mirrors”). All of it seems sincere and free from overly testosterone filled, scene fueled machismo, but rather a driven by a divine guided form of intelligent brute force-and it’s slightly refreshing.

Though hardly an original release, Resistance does everything right for the genre and blows away label mates and faith mates Within, but as usual will have to fight against the Christian stigma that metal heads seem to bring out the worst in both sides of the metal vs. faith argument.

Release Details

Alove For Enemies

Resistance

Comments

Related