{"id":66425,"date":"2018-07-24T18:00:34","date_gmt":"2018-07-24T17:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/?p=66425"},"modified":"2018-07-24T23:17:33","modified_gmt":"2018-07-24T22:17:33","slug":"review-venues-aspire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/review-venues-aspire\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Venues &#8211; Aspire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-66426 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/VENUES-Aspire-Artwork-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/VENUES-Aspire-Artwork-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/VENUES-Aspire-Artwork-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/VENUES-Aspire-Artwork-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/VENUES-Aspire-Artwork-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/VENUES-Aspire-Artwork-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/VENUES-Aspire-Artwork-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/VENUES-Aspire-Artwork-465x465.jpg 465w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/VENUES-Aspire-Artwork-500x500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/VENUES-Aspire-Artwork.jpg 1417w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Back in 2016, Stuttgart&#8217;s\u00a0<strong>Venues<\/strong> impressed with their\u00a0\u2018<em>Tear Down a Venue\u2019<\/em>\u00a0EP. Opening like a metalcore-powered chainsaw before quickly diversifying into A Day To Remember gone feral. It basked in huge choruses yet was unable to resist a big metal breakdown. Nyves Krithinidou brought soaring clean vocals, which contrasted sharply with Robin Baumann, her male counterpart, and his Architects-lite screams. It was a great statement of intent. Now their back to unleash their\u00a0debut album \u2018<em>Aspire\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>With ten times the confidence, \u2018<em>Aspire<\/em>\u2019 benefits from crisp production at the hands of Christoph Wieczorek (Annisokay) and chances are that intent is world domination. Opener \u2018<em>We Are One<\/em>\u2019 is a belter. Fast, slick and only arms-length metal.<\/p>\n<p>And it\u2019s followed by \u2018<em>Lights<\/em>\u2019, a dance-along, beach-party number. It starts jarringly slowly. It&#8217;s like running into a glittery brick wall. Synths sparkle, vocals are near-rapped. Unexpected, and great, yet killing the momentum. Such poor sequencing is a massive stumbling block, especially with so much to work with.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"VENUES - The Epilogue (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pO0_mPwxr7M?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Throughout, only a faint whiff of their original metalcore sound remains, mainly courtesy of Dennis Vanh\u00f6fen\u2019s drumming. Guitarists Toni Lixx and Constantin Ranis play in many styles and often avoid heavier sounds entirely. Likewise, Baumann\u2019s gruff vocals are given a back seat. Although Florian Brett provides a\u00a0prominent bass rumble on \u2018<em>Shades of Memory,\u2019<\/em>\u00a0elsewhere he&#8217;s buried by the production. However, everything comes together brilliantly on \u2018<em>Silence\u2019<\/em> and \u2018<em>Dilemma<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not all plain sailing, however, \u2018<em>The Epilogue\u2019\u00a0<\/em>features piano soundscapes with so much sunrise-across-the-ocean shimmery, it&#8217;s almost overwhelming. And \u2018<em>My True North\u2019<\/em> nearly sags under a lethargic chorus.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, this is a very impressive debut.\u00a0<strong>Venues <\/strong>have big, accessible songs and aren\u2019t afraid to try new things. \u2018<em>Aspire\u2019<\/em> could well catapult them into the big time, despite being sabotaged by its utterly baffling track order.<\/p>\n<p>3\/5<\/p>\n<p>\u2018<em>Aspire<\/em>\u2019 by <strong>Venues<\/strong> is released on 27th July on <strong>Arising Empire<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Venues<\/strong> links: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VENUESofficial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/VENUESOfficial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/venuesofficial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Words by Ian Kenworthy (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhisperingSand\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@WhisperingSand<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Venues have big, accessible songs and aren\u2019t afraid to try new things<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":66426,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[5879,993,15621,15575],"class_list":["post-66425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album-reviews","tag-album-reviews","tag-arising-empire","tag-ian-kenworthy","tag-venues"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - 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