CD review OBEY THE BRAVE ‘Balance’

(8/10) Canadian metalcore powerhouse Obey The Brave has their homebase in Montreal, Quebec and that’s where they started their metal journey back in 2011.

Since then the quintet released three full-length longplayers with ‘Balance’ being number four. The new album features nine songs and with a running time of 29 minutes, meaning the album isn’t lengthy at all.

Now, a couple of extra songs would have been beneficial but let’s see what we get offered with the nine songs that create the tracklist. Obey The Brave plays metalcore, which they combine with some catchy melody lines. ‘Cold Summer’ is a song representing this very well, being furious in the verse and catchy in the chorus. Also ‘Smoke Signals’ shows the band’s passion for melodies, tunes that open up their music to a wider group of fans.

The great songs though are the ones when the Hardcore background breaks through. ‘Calme Le Jeu’ is one of these raging anthems with angry shouts and ‘Reality Check’ is even better. The latter is a merciless smasher and is the best track on the album. Mighty riffs, an excellent groove and aggressive shouts differentiate the track from most of the other ones on ‘Balance’.

To conclude: ‘Balance’ is a well-crafted album that’s a little bit on the short side. However, songs like ‘Reality Check’ are excellent and the entire firepower of the album carries you along.

(8/10)

Tracklist: