Stick to Your Guns – Comes From the Heart
Century Media (5/13/08)
Hardcore / Metal
There’s a time and place for everything. But sometimes, at some point, the “get in, kick ass, get out” approach becomes a cliché. And that was the obvious aim Stick to Your Guns was taking with Comes From the Heart (the album’s ten tracks clock in at under a half-hour). So, let’s consider that strike one.
Then there’s the hardcore scene in general. Unless you’re taking the brutal, old-school approach (take a listen to last year’s Warriors album for a good example of this), or shifting toward the metal end of the spectrum (Hatebreed isn’t reinventing the wheel every outing, but you can’t dismiss any album that the band has released), you’re pretty much stuck. Hell, Remembering Never was singing about beating a dead horse back in 2004. So for a band to try carrying that “core” movement, made famous by the likes of Atreyu or maybe From Autumn to Ashes (and I’m talking back around ’01 or ’02 here), it’s unclear whether we’re supposed to respect Stick to Your Guns for carrying the banner, or shake our heads for the group … well, beating a dead horse. So there’s strike two.
If it wasn’t already clear, Stick to Your Guns has a fairly formulaic approach to its music. There are hardcore breakdowns, attacking riffs and this positive (albeit brutal) element to the music. The vocals oscillate between the typical hardcore howl and clean, sometimes melodic, singing.
But don’t get me wrong; it’s not all boring. “Tonight’s Entertainment” is a nice little brutal slab of hardcore, while the drumming on “Driving Force” is pretty impressive, and there’s some pretty good rhythm guitar work on there, too. And there are some nice solos sprinkled about the album, especially on “We Must Look Like Ants From Up There”. And to throw listeners for a loop, there’s “Interlude”, which basically consists of sampling and acoustic work in a very laid-back, mellow vein. It’s entirely out of place on the album, and doesn’t really work, as a result; but it’s a nice try nonetheless.
Comes From the Heart is a little too short, and not the most original album out there, but Stick to Your Guns doesn’t do a terrible job producing this type of music. Not fantastic, and not horrendous, this album is just sort of there, and listeners will either love it or hate it.
