It’s not often that a self-proclaimed hardcore EP clocks in at eighteen long minutes with just three tracks of substance, but Bournemouth’s IN YOUR HONOUR are dead set on bringing the unusual genre of ‘epic progressive hardcore’ to music today. An oxymoron of terms, it’s abnormal that the two collide often – the daunting realm of drawn out prog and the fast-and-furious frenzy of classic hardcore don’t seem in any way two areas of counter-mainstream music readily available to synthesise at any time. This fusion is a concept In Your Honour are dangling their feet in, but not quite submerging in. Think your average chart-topping pop-metal groups such as Bullet For My Valentine rather than a hypnotic cocktail of Minor Threat and Dream Theater.
Opening with the much clichéd ‘Intro’, the soft clean melody paired with ominous drumming is not unexpected in the slightest, and disappointing in regards to pure originality. As the heavy, distortion laden power chords cut through the delicate strumming, it’s clear that genre-bending isn’t exactly what’s on the cards with this EP. ‘The Worst Is Yet To Come’ is archetypal of metal today and wouldn’t sound out of place on Scuzz’s most-requested rotation. Forced hardcore vocals contrasting with clean-cut X Factor sing alongs ensure that while In Your Honour have not achieved their goal of creating anything remotely ‘epic’, ‘progressive’ or even ‘hardcore’, they have certainly cemented their status as a middle of the road metal band. Guitar Hero deals await.
OLIVIA JAREMI