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I have somewhat watched She Walks in Beauty grow. I was fortunate enough to see one of their first shows, which took place before they even recorded their first EP. They've always been talented and energetic. What does ...And Oceans to Boil bring us? Let me tell you.
First off, don't let the name or the long titles lead you to believe She Walks in Beauty is just another generic metalcore band with recycled riffs and boring double bass. They get the name She Walks In Beauty from a poem of the same name by Lord Byron. The long song titles; I suppose they just like long titles. The name of this EP is actually Feast Your Ears on Music That Brings Kings to Their Knees And Oceans To Boil, but it's referred to as ...And Oceans To Boil. Anyway, on to the music.
She Walks in Beauty's last effort gave us strong metalcore music with beautiful melodies and crushing, heavy passages. After a few lineup changes, the band has come up with an evolved style that displays all their influences and creates an awesome end product. This EP offers more beautiful melodies (see the intro, "High On Life"), more crushing breakdowns, and more group chants. And the new element of chaotic grind parts only adds to the band's overall sound.
Instead of transitioning through heavy parts with intricate melodic passages, ...And Oceans To Boil has more guitar fills, drum fills, and those chaotic parts mentioned earlier. The intro is a clean (not distorted), guitar-driven melodic song, until the end when the chugs come in full force and lead you properly into the rest of the disc. All in all, the band has gotten much better at showing all their influences and has grown into something more original.
The guitars are very well played. Even during breakdowns or just chugging parts, Chris and Andy switch it up with different patterns instead of the same, repetitious chugga-chugga part. The lead lines and chaotic parts are where the guitarists show their real talent. The new drummer is very precise and effortlessly keeps up with the rest of the band. The drums are varied, which keeps things interesting instead of just having the same old beats repeated several times. Even the bass gets a nice underlying part in the intro song, "High On Life."
The vocals are insane. They really stand out as a strong point of She Walks in Beauty. The intro sees vocalist Jake Luhrs doing some distant-sounding clean singing, and he pulls it off quite well. When the intro starts to build up to the heavy ending, several vocal parts come in with Luhrs pulling off a wide range of screams all at once. It adds nicely to the transition. Another shining moment in the vocalist's repertoire is during the song, "You Must Be This Tall to Ride," which features similarly layered vocals in the intro. During "I will Not Forgive You," where there once was a group chant, Luhrs screams "I will not forgive you" with a crazy echo on it, which is unique and refreshing.
Overall consensus of this band: very talented, great songwriters, awesome dudes. The only downfall to this record is the production, but it isn't horrible considering it was self-released and recorded at a friend of the band's house. Check these guys out!
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