With
Embrace Today's
We Are the Enemy, the group resets expectations around metal-influenced hardcore without alienating fans of the style. Sticking to the metalcore script, the Deathwish outfit brings forward skull rattlers like "Delivered from Evil" and "Goodnight My Love" that may not appear, on the surface, to vary that much from its Kurt Ballou (of
Converge) produced grunt and growl predecessor,
Soldiers. However, dirges like "Walk Alone" -- replete with audible chords in the place of chugga-chugga riffs -- hint at the melodic changes that are fully realized on
We Are the Enemy's high point. Here, the group displaces the subgenre's atypical gang choir for a female vocal augmentation and acoustic guitars. Such brave creativity amid a chest-pounding hardcore scene could be construed as career suicide, but one suspects that's the point.
Embrace Today could give a rat's ass about the status quo. ~ John D. Luerssen