I genuinely can’t understand how in 2013, bands like Heart of a Coward are still a thing. I find it strange that metalcore is enduringly popular in the same way that nu-metal was 20 years ago. So with that in mind I’ll try and be as objective about ‘Severance’ as possible.

Firstly, this album isn’t terrible. It’s full of the standard tropes of metal bands, the logo in that font, dark one-word song titles like ‘Nauseum’, ‘Deadweight’ and ‘Psychophant’ and an album cover that looks pretty similar to Bring Me the Horizon’s Sempiternal. But actually it’s fairly listenable, there’s some clever guitar work and lyrically it’s more inspired than 90% of the bands out there.

Opener ‘Monstro’ kicks things off with a bang, assaulting the listener with a super heavy opener. However follow up tracks such as ‘Distance’ and ‘Prey’ are more melodic, with Killswitch Engage-style clean vocals layered over heavy guitars. ‘Nauseum’ is the high point of the album, with some really creative compelling guitar work, fleshing out a track which otherwise would have been little more than Trivium-lite.

The biggest problem the album faces is that the entirety of ‘Severance’ is littered with typical breakdowns, to the point where it feels like they’re simply there as album filler.  The majority of songs use breakdowns as a means to ending the track, causing each song to blend it to one another until it becomes quite repetitive.

Overall, I’m not entirely converted, but Heart of the Coward have managed to release an album more inspired than the majority of slop being produced by bands of the genre. ‘Severance’ won’t garner many (if any) repeat listens from me, but if they played a festival I’d probably watch them. If you have even a passing interest in this type of metal, be sure to give ‘Severance’ a go, you’ll probably appreciate in ways I can’t.

3/5

‘Severance’ by Heart Of A Coward is released on November 4th on Century Media Records.

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Words by Jay Sullivan.