Oxfordshire, not exactly renowned for its post-hardcore or metalcore – at least not to my knowledge, though, please do write in and correct me if I’m mistaken – but that can only play to, Oxfordshire-based-five-piece, Vera Grace’s strength. I mean, what’s struggling to fight your way to the top of an oversaturated scene, rife with unnecessary competitors, when you can stroll into or out of an area knowing not that it’s yours for the taking, but that it’s already yours.
With that behind you, well, everywhere else is easy pickings, no? So it shall no doubt be with Vera Grace, deliverers of our latest Single of the Week, ‘Catharsis’, a track that has the Ronseal seal of approval in terms of doing exactly what it says on the tin; five and a half minutes of unabashed and vitriolic venting through wrenched screams, kinetic stop-start riffs, the occasional hit of a bludgeoning breakdown, and some relentless work behind the kit.
However, it’s not all aggro on show for this display of catharsis with plenty of melodic breaks bleeding in, between the heaviness bringing about moments of unsettling calm, and there’s plenty a release of tension throughout too, with some soaring guitar lines adding an uplifting, light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel atmosphere to proceedings; displaying a little hope in all that despair and bitterness.
It’s the lead single, coinciding with the release of the storytelling EP, Novella, that goes some way to showing why these five have already done the rounds touring in support of bands like Devil Sold His Soul, Feed The Rhino, and 36 Crazyfists. Promising progressive post-metalcore, staking its claim on Oxfordshire, and surely everywhere beyond.
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