The Christmas season is over, and the calm is slowly giving way to the everyday hustle and the general "I'm done for today" mindset, and everyone is starting to come down from their hypocrisy trip. So it's a perfect opportunity to take on an album of the harder kind: "The Alpha & Omega" by "Five Feet High And Rising," adorned with a beautiful sunset cover. There’s hardly a better way to create an "anti-Christmas mood." Hooray!
The name may be long, but it doesn't say anything about the length of the CD. Just five tracks (but with a decent runtime: the fun is supposed to last 23 minutes) have found a cozy spot on the silver disc. But since the quantity doesn’t necessarily say anything about the quality, one should approach the matter with a positive attitude.
And lo and behold: The first seconds already convince with a very high-quality sounding (a "renowned producer" named "Florian Nowack" is mentioned) hardcore backdrop. In addition to the usual instruments like drums, guitar, bass, or vocal cords, sounds from a synthesizer are also integrated, which strongly remind me of Rammstein or Tasters. These atmospheric sounds fit in very well here, expanding the hard string instruments and the diligent double bass efforts in a reasonable manner, and breathe a bit of "melancholy" or "despair" into the otherwise aggressive mood. Nice!
The voice is usually the point where good hardcore either truly flourishes or fails miserably. Fortunately, we have another case here where the shouting (i.e., "growling") is well done. Since the five guys from Alfeld (surely everyone knows them) look very young on paper, the whole thing even has a certain "youthful sound" that hits quite well. Somehow, "from a semi-deep throat" describes it quite accurately. It sounds raw and unpolished, just as punk rock should be! But there is also a downside: the vocals. It seems to me that this "scream-sing" mix - unlike many other bands in this genre - threatens to flood the entire scene. Not that it necessarily sounds bad, but you can tell that a change is taking place in this regard (or that I've simply lived on the wrong side of the HC globe). That the widely popular "one-track policy" is also being practiced here should be self-evident. But for reasons of habit, I won't go into that further this time.
The vocals, in any case - even if they sound very good with some genre representatives - cause quite a shortcoming here. They don't really fit into the hard and rough sounds and seem out of place. Additionally, it seems that the frontman has some issues with it, as the effort manifests itself in the form of "pitch problems" in the voice. The idea behind it is commendable and would have come across well, but there is still some room for improvement. Or trimming. Depending on how you look at it.
In principle, we have here a small but fine record that has an above-average entertainment factor. I don't blame the guys for the few tracks, as I expect that the "real" album will come later. I categorize the CD here as "preview in manifested form." So stay tuned.
So stay tuned, you Alfelders!
