At All Cost
Circle Of Demons
6.9
Synopsis:
After a debut on the short, ill fated return of Combat Records, At All Cost, my favorite of the short lived label's three efforts (Horse the Band, Look What I Did), find themselves on Century Media and still find themselves annoying me and entertaining me at the same time.
Reviews:
I really wanted to hate this record-and initially I did-those silly robotic synthetic vocals pop up for many of the choruses, and the band still basically plies a form of peer copying metalcore (the opening title track is a total Darkest Hour rip-off) with some oddball pop influences. However, amid the cliché rife commercial, quirky metalcore, I have to say there are a handful of songs on Circle of Demons that I just can’t get out of my head.
Lets talk about those to start with: after the rather horrid opening title track (which really starts the album off in bad fashion) and the equally tepid “Get Down For the Revolution”, the catchy “The Message” got my ears perked up a tad with some nice solo work and “Let it Rain (Blizzard of Snakes)” has a nice Bay Area thrash backbone between lame choruses, then suddenly breaks into this cool hazy southern/blues acoustic mid section. If anything, At All Cost, despite their metalcore background, are not afraid to throw a wrench in the works. Then after the forgettable Unearth-isms of “Ride Through the Storm”, At All Cost deliver two of those tracks that almost makes really like the album; the well done orchestral elements and clever electronica that collide for “We Won’t Give In” make for a pretty unique track, and the utterly terrific sweep arpeggio (I’m a sucker for those) that opens “Step One” and its chorus reel me in further to the album's clever yet random intricacies amid the standard rock meets metalcore fare (i.e. “Leaving Forever”, “The Wall That Divides”).
The final two tracks that have me teetering on this album are the almost 70’s feel of “Eating Lighting pt 3” and the epic “Drugs”-a lavish seven minute closing ballad of sorts, again with some interesting orchestral use and acoustics amid metalcore .
Still though, I’m torn on this band; Circle of Demons is an improvement over their debut, but not an album I’m likely to play over and over again unless it’s for the three of four tracks that really grabbed me.
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