Raising Conviction - A New Beginning - Album Review - Progressive Deathcore from Belo Horizonte, Brazil
I found an amazing band called “Raising Conviction” through their bassist’s Instagram page and thought, “This needs to be reviewed immediately!” I listened through their single, “Post Scriptum”, and then figured out their album, “A New Beginning”, dropped the day of me finding out about them.
I listened through their whole album and was floored by how good it was. The two standout songs were their single and their 6-minute track “A New Beginning”. The latter of which gave me major “Mariana’s Trench” vibes by "August Burns Red.” These two tracks made their way onto my “Prog Metal Bangers” playlist on Spotify next to bands like “Rivers of Nihil”, “Periphery” and “August Burns Red.”
I will take a somewhat technical approach to the review as I am a professional audio engineer and I will break up the review into 5 sections: overall productions, guitars, drums, vocals, and bass. Let’s dive in!
Overall production: I am a professional audio engineer by training and profession and these guys NAIL it. I cannot believe how well everything gelled together. I would place their genre as progressive metalcore/deathcore and their production fits perfectly. The drums are massive, but they do not kill the bass in the mix in anyway. Guitars are huge without taking the space of the vocals as both guitars and vocals all fit together in the same place on the frequency spectrum. The same thing is true with the kick and bass. They left a lot of room for the bass to have space in the mix while also allowing space in for the bass’ upper harmonics in the 1,000 through 5,500 Hz area. Vocals were crystal clear. I did not notice any artificial distortion on the vocals besides for effect during clean breakdowns. It was a great, clear, and punchy mix worthy of the genre. Great job!
Guitars: Guitars were massive. I loved the old-school tones that they went for. It is very much similar to old August Burns Red, which I dig a lot. I enjoyed their use of chords that I normally don’t hear in this genre of music. The guitars were tight and had harmonics that are typical of old ABR as well. I enjoyed the melodic sweeping they did, and they were not afraid to have open chords and melodies that helped make the heavier parts sound more impactful. Overall, amazing job and very well played.
Drums: Drums sounded very typical for the genre, which is not a bad thing at all. He was a beast and reminded me a lot of both Trivium’s and August Burns Red’s drummer. He had groove where it was necessary. The blast beasts were on point, and everything was clear, especially the cymbals. Sometimes, the cymbals get washed away in the mixing and mastering process, but they were loud and clear, and I loved it.
Vocals: The vocals were amazing. It literally felt like I was listening to a stellar combination of Jake Luhrs of ABR and Matt Heafy of Trivium. The screams were so versatile. His ability to switch style and tone of his screams was amazing. He did not just stay on one tone the whole time and swept between high fry screams and low fry and false chord screams. He also did a lot of yelling with distortion, like Jake Luhrs. When the singing came it, it felt like I was listening to Matt Heafy. It was very clear without a lot of grit, and it counteracted the heaviness of his screams and growls very well. It made the choruses, and the verses help stand out. Overall, great choices in screams, growls with varying technics combined with tasteful singing as well.
Bass: I am going to give the bass a lot of love as I found these guys through their bassist here on Instagram. The bass tone on this album as awesome! The only word I can think of was beefy. It filled up all the space between 50 to 500 Hz so well without taking away anything from the low fundamentals of the growls and kick drum. I also noticed some awesome chorus and reverb effects during the breaks of the some of the songs that helped give some the tracks some great, low-end atmosphere. He is a very tasteful bassist. He followed the guitar when it was necessary, but also added his own awesome uniqueness during clean breaks that help the songs and his bass work standout from other more generic bass work within the “prog metalcore” genre.”
In conclusion, this was an amazing effort. Please follow them. I purchased their single and their album and I hope you will too! Links to their album, “A New Beginning” below.
If you want me to review your prog metal album or single, then please DM me! I would love to do it for you.
Review by: Adam Driskell of Circles of Namibia
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