The metal market is close to saturation these days. Wall-to-wall crunching riffs, strong leading melodies, and authoritatively growled vocals, along with the odd clean component, are wherever you wish to find them. What the scene desperately needs, in the era of ten upcoming bands every week, is a bit of originality. With Novella, all of the components are there: riffs that could slay a horse, leading guitar tones, and vocals that are a call to arms. What’s missing, however, is the cutting edge – the shot to the jugular, if you will – and whilst there are tracks whose different components are all a good idea in theory, when the bits are put together, they are a jigsaw puzzle with a missing piece.
There are certainly good periods in Novella where Vera Grace are very, very close to completing the final product. Third track ’12_04′ ends with an absolutely beastly, chugging riff line that threatens to knock your socks (and the rest of your clothes) off. ‘Griever’ has a nice melodic opening to it, and the drums are well thought-out; not overused, as is so often the case with the blast beat empire that is the metal scene in 2015. The vocals on the track are as authoritative as I’ve heard in metal this year too, which is a compliment indeed, and the track itself is the best on the album by some distance.
However, what’s frustrating is that Vera Grace can’t seem to complete the picture. They do all the groundwork, and show the fact that they can, on occasion, produce music of the top drawer. But they don’t hit top gear often enough for it to be certified of the top order. One reason for this, I think, is the structural make-up of the EP. The EP itself seems to be composite of two different concepts, and whilst this might work on a full ten or eleven track release, on a six tracker it paints a more confusing picture.
Furthermore, the attempts in the earlier tracks to be atmospheric are, regretfully, of little or no impact and fail to give the crucial background that the later tracks deserve. If there were more delicate musical intricacies to keep the listener on full tilt, perhaps the listener would be hit harder by the elephant-sized riffs to come. Unfortunately, one minute and a bit of background ambience isn’t enough to set the scene, let alone paint the picture.
Credit to Vera Grace – at times on this album they’ve shown they can go to the top of melodic hardcore. But it just doesn’t happen often enough, and the fact that the real brutality is hidden within layers that sound, frankly, generic, is a real frustration. Not a bad start by any means, but to reach the top of this game, you have to be the best from start to finish. Even though Novella finishes well, whilst other bands are already off and running, it is still stuck in the starting blocks.
Released 17th August
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