Contrary to what the cliché dictates, nice guys finish first. When it comes to music especially, if you keep quiet and produce the sort of tunes that catch attention for quality rather than controversy, you are almost always going to be better off. Create To Inspire prove to be a prime example of this. Since debut EP ‘Halfway Home’ brought their rough-and-ready emotional offerings to the underground’s attention, the band have kept their heads down and slowly but surely built a name for themselves both with fans and fellow bands alike. With their sophomore snapshot ‘Home Is Where My Heart Dies’, the band will be hoping to build on a run that it is threatening to go stratospheric any time soon. They might be in luck.

From the get-go, there is so much to admire about Create To Inspire. Pushing forward unrelenting intensity over thick slabs of ferocious and sharp metalcore, the band are not scared to probe into the deepest pockets of their and your own subconscious. Using their soapbox for both self-relief of the demons that cling to their backs but also as a place to motivate and provoke optimism in their listeners, they are delivering on a level that many wish they could reach. Opener ‘History’ preaches inspirational snippets over the top of headbang-worthy flurries of riffs, while ‘Counting Days’ pummels with deep-set heaviness and even deeper feeling. ‘Don’t Let Go’ carries lingering poignancy behind its bubbling instrumental before the title track sees things out with shirt-tugging emotion and inch-perfect hostility. Over before it has even really begun, Create To Inspire truly leave you begging for more yet are insistent that you wait.

With ‘Home Is Where My Heart Dies’, Create To Inspire continue to skirt round the edges of something truly great. With enough sentimentality to counteract their party mosh aesthetic, the band is seamlessly going from strength to strength without even breaking a sweat. If all is well and good in the emotive hardcore market, Create To Inspire will be the next true world-beaters. Watch this space.

4/5

’Home Is Where My Heart Dies EP’ by Create To Inspire is out on 25th March via Basick Records.

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Words by Jack Rogers (@JackMRog)