BOARDERLANDS, a five piece "progressive metalcore" ban from Lisbon, Portugal, deliver the nine track LP "Voice Of The Voiceless" with great intensity the whole way through. This is very much the main draw for a lot of metalcore, as often the music isn't overly technical (except maybe for the drums), and in this regard BORDERLANDS certainly succeed. However unlike a lot of metalcore, these guys tend to show off quite a lot of musical prowess throughout these nine tracks.

BOARDERLANDS formed in mid 2012, and have previously released an EP and a single, but its only now that we finally get a proper taste of the band. As I mentioned before, there is an undeniably high level of skill to each one of the musicians here, and combined with solid song writing, they manage to do a fairly good job of the album. The frustrating part comes from the vocals. Rui Martins does a great job of showing a range to his screams and growls, however it seems that the core of it is made of this low growl which is often unintelligible and sounds like he has a mouth full of marbles. This is only frustrating because he shows at other times with his more mid ranged yelling and his higher screaming, that he is actually really good. It's just those low growls that often feel out of place in an otherwise rather polished sound.

The first actual song, so track two, titled "Children Of The Storm", almost completely put me off because of this, as it's heavy on those marble-mouthed growls. However the music behind it showed promise, so I kept an open mind. It was great to hear throughout the rest of the album that Rui Martins certainly does have much more to him, at times reminding me of KILLSWITCH ENGAGE in his powerful and intense delivery once he turned up the pitch and clarity. As a fan of metalcore, and comparison to KILLSWITCH, is a good thing. "Limitless" was a standout track in that it seemed to pack a certain punch to every single part of it, from the pounding uneven drums with beats that would drive any classical musician insane, to the powerful and choppy guitar, the heavy bass, and the ranged vocals, it's a perfect example of what BORDERLANDS should be. The very next track "Essencia" was a great example of metalcore done properly, with the intense rage from the whole band. The album closes with "Children Of The Sun" which in my opinion, was the strongest song especially from the guitar as you can clearly hear the two separate guitars differentiating from each other through the song with one being more powerful and the other having a more prog-like flair to it. It also showed a soft side to the vocals which was greatly appreciated and almost sounded like Chad Gray from MUDVAYNE.

By the end of the album, I was generally extremely impressed with the performance of each and every member, and greatly appreciative of the complexity of the music, so rarely found in this genre. What started off extremely disappointing, grew to become a pretty good album, with me winding up being only disappointed at the relatively short length. Overall "Voice Of The Voiceless" is a good album, only let down by a few weak tracks, a short length, and a few strange vocals. Otherwise it's a great example of metalcore done right, with a progressive flair thrown in.

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