Edge of Spirit

Edge of Spirit (2009)

Brian Shultz

Edge of Spirit had been doing the metalcore thing for 12 years in their native Japan when they released this self-titled album of sorts. While I can't assume much of the band's musical background and progression, one has to assume that by self-titling this particular release, they were trying to designate it as a definitive statement of themselves as a band, even after grinding it out for so long already. It's too bad that the apparent statement is "We play mehtalcore."

At its best, this EP resembles marginally interesting Red Chord B-sides. At its worst, it's weaksauce brute force and generic pummeling. And its songs go on for entirely too long for not having many interesting dynamic changes or guitar work. It just feels like an exhausting endurance test by the time "Dear Fuckers" rolls around. The guitar tone or overall mood just does not change and the vocal bark has zero personality to it. The breakdowns ("Dear Fuckers," again) are muddy, needlessly drawn out and resultingly ineffectual.

Also, the opening of "Set It Sight" sounds like "Break Stuff." C'mon guys, really?

STREAM
Progression and Revolution [clip]
Destroy [clip]
Song of the Truth [clip]