Album Review Mick Hezemans: Blisstonia EP, ICreatedAMonster
Six tracks of polished, old-school MetalCore.
The Blistonia EP kicks off with blistering Spaceship To Blisstonia, flying out the gate with a sweet syncopated guitar riff that locks in tight with the snare and chugs through the verse without letting up and blends nicely into the clean singing chorus. After a quiet break, the riffs pick back up and build brilliantly into the second chorus, all up a great song and a great opener.
The second track Red Label has a decidedly groovier feel with a chugs riff following the intro. The verse is bass and drums and harsh vocals and the guitars kick back in for the chorus and turns into a bit of a riff-fest before building back into the chorus. I think this would be a killer song live.
The third track Crescent has some nice riffs and kinda reminded me of “You Got A Henna Tattoo That Forever” by Emmure (no hate here) and grew on me a lot the more I listened to it. Next is Wildfire, which starts off slower with some Hard Core tinged riffs that change up a lot and a big chorus. False Gods is a Djenty chug fest with some heavy sections after the verse. These three tracks were all good in their own right but I found they blended together and were too distinct from each other.
The Closer Eulogy reaches for the stars and does a great job of being an epic ending. Starting with a quiet, emotive intro and kicking into a slightly Deftones sounding wall guitars, emotion is cranked up to ten on this one and trades the heaviness for some The Amity Affliction power punk. This one reverses the formula and has a cleanly sung verse and harsh/clean chorus. The lyrics come across as a Lil corny but since that was clearly the intention in a song that’s an ode to a lost friend, you can’t fault someone for achieving what they set out to do. Verse 2 features guest vocals from Paige Savill of I Call Val and Trouvaille and she sticks around to add an extra layer to the big ending.
All up it was a great listen, some of the tracks became a little indistinct in the middle but the EP never got repetitive. The production was great, I liked the audible bass and the songs never lost volume in the quiet sections. ICrestedAMonster may have stuck to the formula of what a “MetalCore” band should sound like, they did a great job of it, and based on this EP, I’m definitely keen to see what they do live. 7/10
Follow the band at these links: https://linktr.ee/Icreatedamonster
Icreatedamonster:Jordan Hood (Vocals), Jordan Theseira (Guitar/Vocals), Jarred Carey (Bass), Will Hunt (Drums) and Jon Flynn (Guitar).
