In a surprising recent trend, metal heavyweights Century Media Records again scores another hardcore signing, this one being California's Stick to Your Guns, for their sophomore release Comes From the Heart. This platter, which clocks in at just over 27-minutes of music, is a furious mix of brutal, old –school hardcore, with some metal elements thrown in. To try and appeal to a wider audience, the band injects a bit of melodic clean vocal sections in a few spots that attempts to temper the raging shouts of singer Jesse Barnett, but it sounds somewhat forced. It's when this outfit goes full tilt, like on "Part of Me" and "Tonight's Entertainment", that things tend to fire on all cylinders here, the guitars of Alex Barnett & Ryan Nelson thick and mashing, and the rhythm section of bassist Darel McFadden and drummer Casey Lagos really locking in tight. The hip-hop strains on "Interlude" sound totally out of place, and at times throughout this CD Barnett seems to want to move towards some sort of ghetto rambling that flat out does not work within the confines of these often times brutal songs. I don't know, this one has it's moments, but for the most part Comes From the Heart is all over the place, Stick to Your Guns coming across as a band that is searching for their place in the extreme metal world but unsure how to get there.
Track Listing
1) We're What Separates the Heart From the Heartless
2) Impact
3) Part of Me
4) Enough is Enough
5) Accessory Children
6) Interlude
7) Tonights Entertainment
8) We Must Look Like Ants From Up There
9) Driving Force
10) Looking For the Surface