Список групп Hardcore Scound At the Point of Death

Scound is a Czech band from the town of Trinec, which is that nation's largest producer of iron and steel. Metal pervades the community in one way or another. It's citizens have an insatiable appetite for metal music. So many big name bands like Anthrax or Saxon often veer off of the usual beaten paths, to perform gigs there before the unusually enthusiastic crowds.

They take their name from an abbreviated form of the word scoundrel, a clever way of expressing the notion of a villain. They've been around for nearly 8 years, with as many line up changes as the average daytime serial drama. In 2006 they self released their debut album, No Second Chances, which I haven't been able to find. Then in 2010, they signed with Crystal Productions. They released this 6 track EP, At the Point of Death, and it was recorded in Trinec at the bands own studio.

Scound is described as a Hardcore band, but their music doesn't strike me as Hardcore. Whenever I think of Hardcore, bands like Agnostic Front, or Hatebreed come to mind. So what the hell is Hardcore? It's short for Hardcore Punk, which is a faster, heavier version of Punk, and is packed with power chords. Post Punk is played a little bit slower than that, with a whiff of Limburger cheese. Whenever a style of metal is fabricated into Hardcore, then it becomes Metalcore. That's what we've got here on this disc. Scound have incorporated melodic Death Metal into a half-caste style of Hardcore.

The vocals of Micl yell throatily in Death Metal fashion and sound comparable to Karsten Jager of Disbelief. The music rocks at mid tempo, with a rich bass sound, the down tuned rhythm guitar blends into this, and is hardly discernible as an entity of its own. Sometimes that tandem gives their music an underlying punch, like the usual sound of Heaven Shall Burn. But usually the lead guitar plays melodically, giving most of the music a distinguishable Gothenburg Death Metal arrangement. Riffs like these usually command the music with an attack similar to Anders Bjorler of At The Gates. Then on other songs, the lead guitar twists forth with more accessible melodies sounding something like Bjorn Gelotte from In Flames.

This 6 track, 24 minute EP, is a nice chunk of iron ore from the mines of Trinec. But I foresee 3 options for the band. Make their music cruder, faster, with less melody, so that it can be legitimately classified as a Hardcore band. Fuck that! Why should they waste their talent with that approach? They could keep up with this approach, it works pretty good for them. Or up tune their rhythm guitar for a more dynamic sound and play melodic Death Metal, I think that this could optimize the full talents of Scound.