Those who were already into Metal between the years 2005-2006 will no doubt remember the great success of Metalcore back then. I was about fifteen at the time and like many teenagers I had my honeymoon with that new Metal subgenre. I found it to be a very refreshing sound and there were tons of interesting releases that came out around that time. To some of them I still listen today every once in a while like THREAT SIGNAL's debut album. But in 2008-2009 the genre started to decrease in popularity and nowadays it doesn't have that big of a crowd like it had in it's prime years. I think it's because a lot of people, just like myself, feel that everything that can be done in this musical style has already been done a million times over and got fed up with it. Ever since ALL SHALL PERISH's "Awaken The Dreamers", I personally did not encounter a Metalcore album that stuck with me.

Given those reasons I approached this album with absolutely no expectations and while my suspicions that this album will not be anything that can revive this genre were accurate I still have to admit that their music contains some refreshing elements. It is true that they basically follow the formula of other Christian Metalcore bands: song structures that usually start of with heavy riffs and harsh vocals and break down for melodic parts with emotional singing and then a combination of both in very anticipated c-parts that are meant to catch emotional momentum, breakdowns in the right places, lyrics that deal with...well the word of the lord, and even the orchestral parts the keyboards fill in the background is something that has already been done by bands such as THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA and many others, but there where still several surprises within those familiar patterns that I found appealing. The guitar works for example provide quite intelligent work, hitting the right notes in the heavy parts that go in perfect accordance with the drums thus creating the required massive effect, and on the other side of the scale they also provide successful melodic development in the softer ones to create the correct background for the clean singer. It is a shame that the riffs are sometimes hidden by the guitar sound they chose for this album which I found to be to sharp and it can be very irritating in certain parts.

The parts the keyboard play also has a role in spicing things up. While it is true that putting orchestral keyboards in Metalcore is nothing new as I have mentioned before, the parts they play clearly derive inspiration from Symphonic Black Metal and it makes the music feel more diverse. A perfect example for this can be found in the song "Martyrs" in which the guitars and keyboards demonstrate clear Symphonic Black Metal influences in its beginning and it is also one of the best songs of the album.

One last thing worth mentioning about this band is the vocal work, like many other bands they have decided to split the works between two vocalists, one providing the harsh vocals and the ladder providing the clean vocals. I found the clean singer to be whiny and annoying but the other vocalist belts out insane deep growls and he is one of the more fierce vocalists I have yet to come across.

To sum up, I would say that even though it does not suit my current personal taste this is definitely a calculated and successful effort from a band who knows how to work the listener, this album is ought to be a good fix for fans of the genre.