Counterparts – Prophets | www.corezine.net

Band: Counterparts
Album: Prophets
Year: 2010
Label: Verona Records
Myspace

Best Song: Goodbye, Megaton
Score: 8/10
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Counterparts is a 5 piece melodic hardcore band from Ontario, Canada. Canada has a rich history of hardcore bands such as Cursed, Silverstein, Alexisonfire, Cancer Bats, Comeback Kid, and now Counterparts are here to help carry on this legacy. Counterparts brings a lot to the table with their debut effort entitled Prophets, from the beginning until the end you are hit with punishing vocals, hard hitting riffs, and solid breakdowns.

The album opens with “The Reflex Tester”, a track that is a little over one and a quarter minutes long. In this short amount of time, you will get a good feel for the album. Mainly, you will notice the vocals are somewhere in between melodic hardcore and metalcore, not really fitting into one precise category. That is one of the main ingredients that prevents Counterparts from getting boring. They aren’t as melodic hardcore as Defeater and they aren’t as metalcore as Misery Signals; however, I like that interesting mix they have.

One of my favorites off the album is “Goodbye, Megaton”. The song keeps up a fast pace and has double bass drumming throughout, which I personally love. It also has great dynamics and song structure with beautiful guitar instrumentals which last roughly a half minute long before the vocals punch you in the chest then followed by a sweet breakdown before reaching the end. This song has everything that I am looking for in a metalcore track.

“Sturdy Wings” is another outstanding track. It has nearly all the elements I enjoyed about the previous but it adds in clean vocals and gang chants. It is one of those songs that is great to sing along with, and I can imagine it is a fan favorite at shows. I personally think the clean vocals are a great addition and I wish they used some more of it throughout the album. The end of the song is just epic! It mixes all three vocal styles together while singing “This is where I belong!, This is where we belong!”, it is one you won’t be able to get out of your head.

With Counterparts, you do not have to worry about another band coming to dirty up the scene some more. These guys play music with raw passion and emotions, which should give everybody some faith that this period of autotune abusing ‘hardcore’ bands has not completely taken over just yet. They have already gained the support of one of Canada’s top bands, Silverstein. And, even though I’ve only written about a few select tracks, I can tell you that Prophets has a melodic hardcore identity and Counterparts preserve that identity very well throughout the album. I think it offers fans of all heavy music something they should be able to enjoy, unless of course, you’re into doom metal. Pick this one up February 23, 2010, I promise you won’t regret it!

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