Another CD, another hardcore record! Funny how music goes round in circles like this, with Jade Tree’s ‘From Ashes Rise‘ this time under the spotlight with their fourth full length ‘Nightmares’. The four piece have been around for six years now and have built up a loyal fan base without ever really coming through the smokescreen to gain that extra bit of limelight, and with this record I expect things to just about stay the same. It is yet more frenetic melodic hardcore with growling vocals and crashing guitars which do work well, it just doesn’t separate itself enough from the crowd quite enough to really warrant any special mentions.
Opening tracks ‘Reaction’ and ‘Hell in the Darkness’ both feature rousing introductions which are certainly spine tingling and the opening exchanges between lead vocalist Brad Boatright and guitarist John Wilkerson on the aforementioned work particularly well. ‘They’ is short and not so sweet and passes off with very little of note to happen while ‘On the Fray’ and ‘The final goodbye’ prove to be the darkest tracks on offer so far with the latter proving to be the stronger with a clever chorus saving the song.
Title track ‘Nightmares’ seems to be the most obvious song which could be played on the airwaves if the opportunity ever arose and is fairly formulaic compared to other tracks on show while the mosh inducing ‘Noise’ is one of the finest efforts on the album with a superb fast melody running throughout. ‘The Inner Beast’ plods along at a fairly lacklustre rate and precedes ‘The Mandate’, another crunching number that attempts to shove the album back in the right direction. Penultimate track ‘Bloodlust’ is yet again brimming with a fiery energy without ever going anywhere and unfortunately final track ‘In a Free Land’ kind of feels like maybe one track to many…
So thirty minutes later and another hardcore record passes through my fingertips. Upon first listen I enjoyed this record, but with further inspection it tended to get somewhat tedious. They are capable of making some great songs; it’s just a few of the more ‘filler’ type efforts that get in the way. However they do show a good eye for a great melody and the vocals of Boatright are more than capable of holding their own, but somehow it just doesn’t quite come together.
Jay