When Oxford’s Days of Grace sent us their demo to review last year, they were praised for being amongst the fore-runners of the UK post-hardcore scene. Since then they have been praised by Kerrang and Rock Sound and featured on a Gut Records compilation for young British bands. The band also penned a deal with Transmitter Recordings, which happens to be run by their manager, and the labels first release is this EP. But, as the saying goes, is it any good?
The truth is that ‘The Movement Schematic’ is excellently put together and is among the better records put out by UK post-hardcore bands. But, this is so devoid of any fresh ideas and borrows so heavily from all of the heavyweight acts in the genre, that the end result is generic and uninspiring. It’s a real shame because the songs on offer here are good – for what they are. And that, sadly, is the normal screaming/shouting/singing combo with palm-muted riffs and crashing drums. In Days of Grace‘s defence tracks like ‘Glitch’ and ‘Kineto’ are very impressive; the guitar work is solid, the production excellent and Patrick Currier’s vocals are note-perfect.
But there’s nothing new here at all. Does the world need another Funeral for a Friend clone? And if it does, the sounds need to be catchier and more melodic than the ones on offer here. Take ‘Dream Like Saul’, for example, a track which has everything the emo rulebook demands, but misses out the vital ‘x’ factor which makes FFAF, Thursday or Taking Back Sunday so popular. Days of Grace are better than the vast majority of nu-emo clones currently doing the rounds, and I expect they will go on and forge a half decent career for themselves, but if they want to make the Premier League, and not settle for Division One mediocrity, then they will need to do much better than this. In the end ‘The Movement Schematic’ is good but not great, sadly summing up a genre that is fast running out of new ideas.
www.daysofgrace.co.uk
Transmitter Recordings
Paul