CD REVIEW: YEARS SINCE THE STORM – Hopeless Shelter

Label: Artery Recordings

Release Date: March 18, 2014

Rating: 8/10

Reviewed by: Mike Hubbard

Years Since the Storm is one of the latest new artists on hardcore label Artery Recordings.  Hailing from central New England, YStS presents a unique mix of death metal and nu-metal, sort of like Slipknot and The Acacia Strain had a love child.  Their Artery debut full length titled “Hopeless Shelter” drops on March 18, and was available as an online stream the day before.

“Hopeless Shelter” is an apt title for the disc, given that the overall tone and lyrical content is very dark and hopeless.  The opening track is “Half-Empty” featuring shouted vocals and big breakdowns, which will be plentiful throughout the rest of the album.  The mood gets even darker in the second track, “(Sin)ical”. The pace changes for “On My Own”, starting out softer and slower, but that doesn’t last for long.  This track features more clean vocals, but is still true to the overall style.  “Counterfiction” is the next track which employs haunting whispers in chorus, another nice variation in the vocals.  The intensity pick up with blistering anger on the fifth track, “Mindf*ck”.  “Guilty Pleasures” continues the onslaught, but the mood changes with “Frigid”, which opens with a slow pulsing bass line.  You can almost feel the cold as the song progresses, from the bone chilling lyrics to the spine tingling screams.  The pace picks back up with the driving, mixed metered “Parasite”.  There is a slight glimmer of light with the bright guitars in the opening of “Sun Beneath the Moon”, but the darkness of the album quickly returns with a growl. The tenth song “Hellbound” provides an apt bridge to “Hopeless Shelter”, the title track and closer of the disc.  This last song is a fitting close to the album, summarizing all the darkness and hopelessness that permeates the 38 minutes of the release.  The chorus ‘there is no love, only hatred, in this hopeless shelter I’ve created’ encapsulates the feeling that is infused throughout the album.

If you are looking for some music to pick you up and make you feel good about yourself and life in general, avoid “Hopeless Shelter”.  However, if you are looking for something new, with a good mix of various shades of darkness, the debut from Years Since the Storm will fit the bill.  The heavy gloom is consistent, but there is considerable variations on the theme.  The band has been toiling in relative obscurity for a while now, and this release shows that they have paid their dues and are ready to break out.

https://www.facebook.com/yearssincethestorm

Category: CD Reviews