TENSIDE – Come Alive Dying
Release Date: 19th January 2024
Label: Ivorytower Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Metal, Metalcore.
FFO: Any Given Day, Trivium, Bad Wolves.
Review By: Metal Miguel
TENSIDE coming at you with their latest effort in the guise of 12 tracks of their latest album, with a solid effort on the metal front, combining vocals of both hard and melodic alongside a similar style of melodic guitars and beats spliced amongst the heavier variety that you would come to expect from a metalcore band. I’d say more on the lighter side of the metalcore genre, perhaps not as heavy as Caliban or Killswitch Engage, but still punchy enough for you to take notice.
As I’m new to the band I can say that perhaps their previous albums were a little heavier, which I’ve surmised after reading the EPK from the band and perhaps this lighter tone is a newer or just a progressive move for the band who have been kicking it since 2005, so I can imagine that they would progress and diversify their sound as they grow as a band. This is no slant against them, and it shows maturity as musicians and as a band, to go with an organic growth of art. I also didn’t want to listen to previous albums in case I liked them better or the opposite, and then it gives me a point of reference against this album, I feel it’s better I listened to this as a standalone effort, and I’m glad I did; I’ll check out their other stuff when I’m done.
I enjoyed the album. Although it didn’t set the heather alight for me as much as I thought, I mean it certainly has some groove and hits the mark in certain places but overall, I’m not sure that it really gave my ears the work-out I was expecting. The production is solid, and the music cuts through really well, although it’s not mentioned who produced the album, but I was only really interested because I thought the album sounded like something like Soilwork put out in the early 2000s like Stabbing The Drama, but I’m not sure, but it’s that style of softened metal with melody and groove that has thrown me, it’s good just not heavy enough. For me anyway, but that is the great thing about subjective style musical art, it doesn’t matter what I think, and I am sure there will be an army of folk who will love this album and gain new fans as a result of this solid effort, and it’s just that, a solid effort, but for me just missing that hook, that little bit extra that takes it from a memorable headbanger of an album to a one listen, not sure I’ll go back to it album.
(3 / 5)
