There are still a lot of EP’s being sent to me to review – and I’m more than happy about that. I really wish I had the personnel to both check them all out and review them all as quickly as I have them coming in, but I don’t. I save the immediate reviews for those EP’s that explode into my headphones. Those EP’s that have me looking around the room, seeing what inanimate objects could be brought to life with the sheer power I’m hearing now. The very samples of music that should be making every metalhead cringe sinisterly, and while I know that isn’t true, it strikes me as “H0ly crap, this band should have something going for them.” – And that’s A Wanted Awakening.
The 5-piece from Lowell, Mass. has gone through many changes, trials, tribulations, and a few names since the beginning, in 2002 (yes, that’s no typo – 9 years ago). If you want to read about their entire history, you can check out their Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/awantedawakening?sk=info), but what really hit me hard while I was reading through was the very bottom:
A Wanted Awakening hopes to be just that, an awakening: a breath of life for the stagnating metal scene, and a force to push metal back to the forefront of the music industry.
Bold words indeed (even though I put them in italics). Any band with that sort of message is alright in my book already. Plus, they’re from Massachusetts. Like half of Jacoby Ellsbury’s games this month, they’re 2-for-2. Now it’s at-bat number 3, I’m on the mound, and Rebirth EP has just come in to pinch-hit. Was that a good decision?
Absolutely. This EP caught my hanging curve and put it right on the Mass Pike.
A Wanted Awakening's "Rebirth EP"
The name of A Wanted Awakening’s game is versatility. Though they call themselves melodeath, that’s sort of understating how many genres they delve into and how many influences they make apparent throughout Rebirth. They play the mature, let’s-slow-things-down-a-bit, seamless transition card quite a bit on a few tracks, but it doesn’t get stale because of the manner in which they approach these riffs. The other riffs are so carefully thought out and meticulously placed amongst great rhythm and arguably the largest range of vocals I’ve seen on a local level, that I can’t even call it deathcore at times.
On that note, the clean vocals are just great. I didn’t expect them at all a third of the way into “Flameborn”, and was waiting for them every second after. I can clearly detect another large Massachusetts’ band influence, possibly Killswitch Engage or All That Remains, in the singing voice. It wasn’t necessarily the tone that led me to that conclusion, it was more of the booming, beyond epic proportion vibe that the production was attempting to draw.
The most scintillating track, though I couldn’t take many notes as I was listening (because such curiosity had been invoked, I didn’t know what to do with my hands), had to be “Spiders”. In this track, the clean vocal range is at its finest, and none of the notes seem particularly forced. While that’s going on, a groovy rhythm is being played aggressively in the background, and the dichotomy is magical. The solo – which began soon after I was finally starting to get into the groove of everything – was artistic, yet thrashy at the same time. The harmonies were right on point; a very difficult harmony to pull off due to the tempo, I might add. This is my highlight track because it most accurately depicts the main point I want to get across about this band: they have plenty of influences. Classic metal, metalcore, death metal – it doesn’t matter. The band plays what they like, and they combine it all to make their own sound. There isn’t a band out there that sounds like this, and that really sucks, because I want to see a band that’s readily available to me in Chicago or elsewhere in Indiana that sounds exactly like this.
With that said, I would tell you to buy this EP – but they already have it on their bandcamp: http://awantedawakening.bandcamp.com. If you’re in Massachusetts or see that they’re playing near you, go support this band. If you can’t do that, buy some merch online. If you can’t do that, give them a Like on Facebook. Whatever you have to do to support ’em, go ahead and do it, because I was honestly impressed by this EP. I can’t wait until the full length comes out.
If you think your band should send me an EP to listen to, just contact me at metalpedagogy@gmail.com!
-Geoff, The Nashvillain
The Metal Pedagogy 