I’ve been doing a string of Metalcore listens recently and I have to say as a whole, I really don’t like the genre. Most bands are seemingly content to regurgitate the same musical ideas over and over again without adding any innovation to their music. Even the newer Progressive Metalcore scene is ripe with stagnation, with very few bands injecting something new and exciting into their music
The main problem with
Ten Miles Underwater and most other Progressive Metalcore is just how unremarkable everything is. I can’t help but feel like I’ve heard everything before from the watered down melodeath riffing, to the technical sections and even to the vocals. There’s simply nothing new on display on
Ten Miles Underwater. From the cover art I was expecting something quite oceanic and atmospheric, instead I just got the usual Metalcore meandering with some technical interludes. Although this band is labeled as Progressive Death
Metal for the life of me I can’t see where the Death
Metal tag is coming from. This is pretty much standard Metalcore with a slight hint of Progressivism.
Nothing feels new and unique and it’s far too predictable and typical for my liking.
To say
Ten Miles Underwater doesn’t have its appeal would be an understatement, for the Metalcore fans they’ll no doubt love this release. After all it’s got the usual Metalcore tropes but with a bit more added technicality. It’s pretty clear that the musicians are competent and talented but it still doesn’t take away from how boring this album is.
Honestly the main problem with
Ten Miles Underwater is how safe and manufactured it feels. It seems like they’ve researched in depth all that is popular in mainstream metalcore and built their album around what everyone else likes. The music is pretty much standard affair for metalcore, it’s fairly melodic and technical. But all the technicality and melody can’t save this album from ultimately being generic and shallow.
Although I can see the appeal of
Ten Miles Underwater, it’s just not my thing. It’s a bit too safe and contrived to appeal to me. It’s not exciting enough and there’s no stand out moments. The fact that there is twelve tracks that sound pretty much exactly the same with the exception of the first and final track just highlights how shallow and empty this album is. Maybe I’ve just grown weary of Metalcore but there’s really nothing that excites and/or interests me on
Ten Miles Underwater. This style has been done to death and honestly there’s no reason to listen to this. For what it is, it’s admittedly well played and performed and fairly technically proficient, just don’t go into this expecting something interesting.
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