{"id":26898,"date":"2013-09-10T13:05:52","date_gmt":"2013-09-10T13:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-acoda-yours-to-defend\/"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:25:52","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:25:52","slug":"album-review-acoda-yours-to-defend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-acoda-yours-to-defend\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: ACODA &#8211; Yours To Defend"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/tumblr_inline_msviaymqJQ1qz4rgp.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\"><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>ACODA<\/strong> is quickly making a name for themselves on the metalcore scene. Following an EP release last Spring that brought them accolades and appearances with all sorts of heavy hitters, this four-piece DIY set debut their first full-length <em>\u2019Yours To Defend\u2019<\/em>, an impassioned social commentary set to screams and chugs.<\/p>\n<p>The album starts out very intense, blasting you with heavy guitars, varied tempo, and gut-wrenching screams. &rsquo;<em>The Future Is Yours To Defend&rsquo;<\/em>\u00a0and <em> \u2018V Is For Ventriloquist\u2019<\/em> are rife with solid instrumentals that simply scream technical ability, and it\u2019s clear the band truly understands how to use dynamics, tempo, and other fundamentals to work in their advantage. The screaming, while very intense, is still completely understandable and a great highlight to the passion the band puts into the heavier tracks.<!-- more --><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not all wailing guitars and pounding drums, though. <strong>ACODA<\/strong> also understands restraint. <em> \u2018The Ludovic Technique\u2019<\/em> is a great example of this. Slow clean singing, simple melodies, and sparse instruments serve to punctuate the scream-laden chorus, heightening the hardcore sounds and making them that much better.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2019Yours To Defend\u2019<\/em> isn\u2019t just another metal album, either. It explores different sounds and genres to create interesting songs that show they\u2019re not a one-trick band. <em> \u2018Two Of A Kind\u2019 <\/em> starts off slow, with creepy singing and interesting lyrics. It ends up being the most melodic track on the album, with harmonies and a delicate sound that usually doesn\u2019t appear in this type of music. <em> \u2018A Fire In A Cold Place\u2019 <\/em> is completely instrumental and totally refreshing. It starts out with a sparse sound, with ethereal guitars and ends up sounding pretty, before morphing into a harder sound by the end.<\/p>\n<p>Even after all the high points, this album ends up falling short. With all the intensity shown in half the tracks, the other half ends up being the complete opposite. The moments of mellow, sparse sound that at one point just heightened the metal sounds ends up overtaking the hardcore edge. <em> \u2018Daws Heath&#8217;\u00a0<\/em> and <em> \u2018This Is Life\u2019 <\/em> are okay enough, but the melodies and singing are so mellow and lacking in conviction, it seems at times that the melody was just an afterthought. The final track on the album, <em> \u2018Alex The Astronaut\u2019 <\/em> really makes a drastic example. It\u2019s over six minutes long, and seems to be dragging out forever. It never really gets going, it\u2019s extremely slow, and almost sounds like a lullaby of sorts. It\u2019s definitely a letdown.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ACODA<\/strong> knows how to write great, balanced songs. They are technically sound, but just get caught up in the message rather than the music. Half of the album won\u2019t read well live, which is a confusing choice for a metal band with fans surely expecting an intense show. However, the shortcomings on <em>\u2019Yours To Defend\u2019<\/em> probably won\u2019t hurt them in the long run.<\/p>\n<p>3\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2019Yours To Defend\u2019<\/em> by <strong>ACODA<\/strong> is out now on <strong>Best Before Records. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>ACODA<\/strong> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/acodauk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ACODAuk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Jenny Gagas (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jenny_herself\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@Jenny_herself<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ACODA is quickly making a name for themselves on the metalcore scene. Following an EP release last Spring that brought them accolades and appearances with all sorts of heavy hitters, this four-piece DIY set debut their first full-length \u2019Yours To Defend\u2019, an impassioned social commentary set to screams and chugs. The album starts out very [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[5760,5879,11835,150,11566],"class_list":["post-26898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-acoda","tag-album-reviews","tag-before-before-records","tag-music","tag-yours-to-defend"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Album Review: ACODA - Yours To Defend - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ACODA is quickly making a name for themselves on the metalcore scene. 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