Turn Away - To The Open Sea

At first I didn’t know quite what to make of this album. I mean, ‘Just a Little smile on your face, could save my day’ is not a best line to open a hardcore album. It helps that the band displays some decent skills, the music is detailed and the songs are well crafted, but it still seems poor and lacking in bite. Each time I have feel for some exciting material it never happens.
Even if some of the songs sound decent, they never follow through with some strong hook that would strike an emotional chord in me. This isn’t helped by the fact that the songs rarely stand out from each other. It might have something to do with the production, which is way too polished in my opinion. The vocals are also disappointing, both in charisma and effectiveness. I mean, even if some of the lyrics are well written, the way they are delivered is pretty much disappointing. I am not into hardcore because of the self pity, I’m here because I angry and I when I pick up a hardcore album I want to hear the kids who are as mad at this world as I am.

On the bright side, the songs that grabbed my attention are Leaving The Town and Second Chances, both with its nice riffing and decent melodies. If only they had spiced it up a little it would be dope.

To The Open Sea is a standard effort that very rarely seems to take off. I hope that with the next album they will be able to craft a more aggressive songs. They got the skills, but they need to ante it up a bit.


Label: Lucifers Legions Record
Year: 2010
Band's website