Held Under
S/T
4.9
What I can only term as “American” metal, Albany’s bright eyed Held Under purvey the same sort of death/thrash/hardcore/ hybrid as Lamb of God and God Forbid, looking to hitch a ride on the genre's meteor. This demo EP gives us 5 tracks of their choppy, agro-laden attack that should appeal to fans of the aforementioned acts, although it lacks a certain polish to make them in the same league, as it sometimes interbreeds a few too many genres with no definition. It's like they can't decide if they want to deliver a DEP like frenzy, downtuned Suffocation-like brutality or Pantera-ish thrashism, and while that mix may sound tempting, it's a little convoluted and needs streamlining.
Vocally, Jeff Andrews is as varied as they come, shifting from typical hardcore screams to deep bellows and a broody Phil Anselmo croon and a straight rock metal voice. He has good range, but as with the music, the plethora of styles just comes across a little too much. I’m all for adventurous takes on music, but Held Under seem too willing to please every fan of every genre –all in one song.
“Resewn Scars” kick off this self financed EP with twitchy DEP fused choppiness before some surprisingly deep death metal growls and chugging riffs kick in. It’s a nice start but you get the Down/Pantera like grooves and it’s a little too much of a style shift. “Hopes Dreadful Gift”, follow more modern metalcore pacing, almost settling for a short duration, before the sonic calamity that is “Left With the Wreckage” surfaces with an awful hodge podge of more traditional metal thrashin’, and an inordinate number of style changes.
“Another Stretch of Misery” wants to be an angry death/core lurching behemoth but falls a little flat with the expected self financed production (although it's respectable and it's no where near the quality of the fine Myotonia demo), still it has enough staggering riffs to please, and doesn’t seem to try to catch all styles vocally or stylistically - it's like Held Under actually settled down for a song.
For a self released EP, with a Media Player video, this offering is respectable, and I imagine with the genre's popularity, I’m sure a record deal is imminent, Held Under are worthy but really need to streamline their sound.
