As a band, Alteras is driven by the honourable aim of using their music to offer a message of hope to those who need it the most, whatever they may be experiencing. It’s an idea that they’ve taken with them into their debut album ‘Grief’, but at times the execution doesn’t match their intentions and their message gets lost. This is often due to the constant shift in styles that disrupts the flow of the album. For example, the calm intro of ‘Broke’ is quickly disrupted by some nu-metal inspired riffing which leads to Comeback Kid-esque hardcore for the verses before a contrasting melodic chorus starts the cycle again.
The feeling of restlessness produced by just one song threatens to derail the album before it’s really got going, but thankfully ‘Could Ever Love’ is a lot more sure-footed. The emphasis on the clean vocals and the less harsh edge to the guitars puts it firmly in the bracket of screamo ballad and it’s one of the better tracks on ‘Grief’.
Unfortunately as the album progresses there is a number of tracks that fail to stand out. The stylised drums at the start of ‘Everything You Wanted’ soon give away to the expected interplay between screamed verses and sung choruses and the guitars are standard and lacking in excitement. ‘Scars’ is another effort that shows a glimpse of creativity in the intro, in this case choral vocals and piano, that the rest of the song all but ignores. ‘Something More’ is actually just more of the same and is another disappointingly weak offering.
Alteras are also unable to resist throwing in an acoustic ballad and it fares better than expected, although the lyrical limitations of ‘Black Box’ do grate slightly. Clearly the band have an interest in showing their unplugged side as they end ‘Grief’ with a trio of acoustic tracks, ‘Could Ever Love’, ‘I Swore I’d Quit’, and ‘Speak’. All three tracks were recorded live, but they may well have been recorded in a vacuum as there is zero atmosphere on any of them. The lack of any interaction or personality on the songs renders the live gimmick all but useless and it’s a disappointing end, particularly as ‘Speak (Live at Medusa)’ seems to have had more effort put into it from a musical and lyrical point of view.
There are times on ‘Grief’ when it seems that Alteras have honed their ideas and influences into something listenable and promising, but for every song that suggests they know where their strengths lie, there’s at least one or two that come across as generic and muddled. It’s impossible to knock Alteras for wanting their music to act as inspiration for their fans, however the end product falls well short of their aim.
CHRIS HILSON