Seventh Star – The Brood Of Vipers
Author: Alan Wierdak
Florida’s Seventh Star recently released their second Facedown Records full length entitled “The Brood Of Vipers”, recording it in Massachusetts’ Goody Studios(American Nightmare, Champion, Converge) with Converge’s Kurt Ballou, and unfortunately “The Brood Of Vipers” fails in comparison to releases from any of the aforementioned bands. Bringing their brand of ‘heard it, seen it, can predict it’ tough guy hardcore, “The Brood Of Vipers” falls way short of impressive, as it’s hardly even listenable. Vocally, it’s not uncommon for vocalists in this genre to be incoherent, however, when the production damages the vocals to such an un-clear level, it’s tough to continue listening when all your ears want to do is push the stop button. Imagine A Perfect Murder without any clarity, without any real technicality, and nothing but mindless, inaudible heavy music for nearly 30 minutes, and you have “The Brood Of Vipers”. The guitars are too muddy and down-tuned to pick up any variation in the riffs. There’s grooves you’ve heard before, breakdowns you’ve heard before, and the average fast-paced tough guy hardcore that you’ve heard before. Unfortunately, instead of just being the average ‘heard it before’ hardcore album, the muddy production makes it far worse. The two elements that remain clear throughout the album are the gang-vocals, and the drums. So if you’re looking for a muddy tough-guy hardcore album, or are a fan of Seventh Star’s previous releases, I’m sure you’ll find something on “The Brood Of Vipers” worth listening to, otherwise keep looking since there are many other solid hardcore albums in the same vein as Seventh Star that aren’t plagued by such inaudible production.
Rating: 2/10.
Website: http://www.seventhstar.org
Label: Facedown Records
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