Canada's progressive metalcore/deathcore act Last Call Chernobyl are back with the followup to Drowning Beneath the Sound of Change, this one a 4 song EP titled Set Adrift. Not much has changed for this four-piece, as they still deliver pummeling extreme fare comprised of a variety of screams, growls, grunts, and bellows, brutal breakdowns, and some nifty guitar noodling. The band can certainly play their instruments, as evident by the non-stop complex barrage of riffs and fills on the rampaging "Odin", and "Hourglass" delivers some crushing riffage to go along with some impressive widdly-widdly lead guitar passages. The songs themselves are decent enough, but the problem here are the vocals, which sound like just about every other deathcore outfit out there on the scene today. Throwing every extreme vocal style at the listener on each song does not always make for a great listening experience, and Last Call Chernobyl still have not quite figured out how to make their statement from a vocal perspective. Musically, there's a lot to like here, such as the weaving arrangements of "Abyss", which hint at some reall talent within this band, but there's still not a sense that the group have truly discovered their focus yet. Granted, this is just an EP, but let's see how their next full-length turns out and if they at that point have fully realized their potential.
Track Listing
1) The Frailty of Ascent
2) Odin
3) Hourglass
4) Abyss