{"id":27723,"date":"2013-07-20T13:45:20","date_gmt":"2013-07-20T13:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-defeater-letters-home\/"},"modified":"2018-03-17T15:18:22","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T15:18:22","slug":"album-review-defeater-letters-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/album-review-defeater-letters-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Defeater &#8211; Letters Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/tumblr_inline_mpxy5aMxai1qztcot.jpg\" title=\"\">&ldquo;I hope this letter finds you well!\u201d\u00a0<\/em>roars Derek Archambault to kick off <strong>Defeater<\/strong>\u2019s third and finest album, <em>\u2018Letters Home\u2019.<\/em> What follows is an unrelenting assault of passionate, desperate hardcore that borders on the heartbreaking and never lets up. Not only is this record a prime example of emotional grit, it\u2019s also a gloriously crafted collection of songs.<\/p>\n<p>Take<em> \u2018No Faith\u2019<\/em> as an example, throughout which the guitar is impeccable. Nothing too clever for its own good but continuously smart, full of interesting progressions that add layer after melodic layer to a beautiful piece of music. Then there are the drums carrying <em>\u2018Dead Set\u2019,<\/em> heavy and intense, somehow anchoring the melodic aspects of this aggressive track into yet another borderline anthem. Indeed, Defeater\u2019s rhythm section does a flawless job throughout. At those times in which everything is swaying to an even more abrasive sound, the bass and drums hold everything perfectly in sway and never allow a track to become messy.<em> \u2018Hopeless Again\u2019<\/em> is one such track; at times feeling as though it might break the boundaries and career off into the overtly discordant sunset but ever held in perfect check.<!-- more --><\/p>\n<p>&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=&quot;http:\/\/bridge9.bandcamp.com\/album\/letters-home&rdquo; data-mce-href=&ldquo;http:\/\/bridge9.bandcamp.com\/album\/letters-home&rdquo;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Letters Home by Defeater&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;\/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;<\/p>\n<p>Closing track <em>\u2018Bled Out\u2019<\/em> is the pick of the bunch though. Even at six and a half minutes long it loses none of the intensity built up throughout the album. The closing refrain;<em> &ldquo;All I see is that bastard in me&rdquo;<\/em> is a haunting call back to opener <em>\u2018Bastard.\u2019<\/em> Concluding the album in a way that makes the stories throughout feel tangibly complete.<\/p>\n<p>It wouldn\u2019t be right to finish up this review without mentioning Archambault one more time. The vocals throughout <em>\u2018Letters Home\u2019<\/em> are next level and something that any and all vocalists could (and should) aspire to. His performance is absolutely breathtaking, coarse but packed with melody, angry and yet touching on unfathomable levels.<\/p>\n<p>How <strong>Defeater<\/strong> managed to pull together such a captivating album, I do not know. But there\u2019s no doubt in my mind that in years to come this will be an album viewed with the same awe currently surrounding its arrival online.<\/p>\n<p>5\/5<\/p>\n<p><em>&lsquo;Letters Home&rsquo;<\/em> by <strong>Defeater<\/strong> is available now on <strong>Bridge Nine Records<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defeater<\/strong> links: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/defeaterband\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>|<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Defeater\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Tom Knott (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nounandthenouns\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@nounandthenouns<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&ldquo;I hope this letter finds you well!\u201d\u00a0roars Derek Archambault to kick off Defeater\u2019s third and finest album, \u2018Letters Home\u2019. What follows is an unrelenting assault of passionate, desperate hardcore that borders on the heartbreaking and never lets up. Not only is this record a prime example of emotional grit, it\u2019s also a gloriously crafted collection [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8181],"tags":[5879,6772,1101,11708],"class_list":["post-27723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-post","tag-album-reviews","tag-bridge-nine-records","tag-defeater","tag-letters-home"],"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: Defeater - Letters Home - Already Heard Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&ldquo;I hope this letter finds you well!\u201d\u00a0roars Derek Archambault to kick off Defeater\u2019s third and finest album, \u2018Letters Home\u2019. 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