So what makes Core more than “just another metal band”? Well, you can sum that up in 5 words – dynamics, atmosphere, songs, melody, power!!
On their debut album, the Dundee trio present a selection of 11 songs that are so insanely listenable, you're barely catching breath before the need to repeat the whole experience once you've played it through.
The album opens with “Take The Power Back” as a fuzzy lead guitar suddenly explodes in a fireball of blazing guitar riffs, molten bass and crunching drums, before trhe guitar switches off to reveal snarling, menacing vocals sung to atmospheric perfection above the rumbling bass and lurching drums before another salvo of guitar fire is unleashed and the hookline grabs you where it matters. The song ebbs and flows before finally letting loose in a hurricane of guitar-driven power, veering back and forth between the guitar-free menace and the riffing anger of a song that explodes, implodes and finally erupts to nerve-shattering metal proportions. Following this is “Assisted Suicide” that rages into life amid a swirling guitar riff, crunching drums, solid bass and the slowly rising and the slowly rising anger of the vocals before the band erupt once again only this time it's a fast-paced supernova of band-driven power as the guitars churn, grind and riff, the bass is positvely thundering and the drumming sounds like a thousand native american indians pouring from the speakers. The angst-ridden and powerful vocals roll headlong into the middle section where the band droop down for a moment's atmospheric respite, before they then fire up and go nuclear as the chorus skyrockets and the sound of fast metal thunder drives to a roaring conclusion. “Lie To Me” follows similar principles, only this time is even more powerful as it rages itnto this monstrous storm of metal chaos, the hookline cutting through with all the efficiency of a ruthless serial killer as this immense sounding blitz of guitar, bass and drums is erupting all around. With now characteristic ease and amazingly natural sounding structure, the band briefly take it down before they then erupt even more powerfully than at any time in the album to date to unleash this howl of a vocal over fast, crushing metal instrumentation that simply takes your breath away as you listen open-mouthed, in absolute awe of this metal trio getting it absolutely spot on.
“Guilty” begins with a ringing, almost menacing, guitar shimmer over which the drums crunch and lurch, the bass throbs and the low-slung vocal weaves a snake-like path through the song, the whole thing building to tension where the song then explodes in another glorious hail of riffing and thundering, this time the vocal continuing to intone and scorch its rage of a lyric over the storm force playing that this trio supplies to absolutely jaw-dropping degree. There's a twist to the song as the mid-section, via a slice of swirling, psychedelic metal guitar-led redirection, then leaps into this maze of firepower drumming, towering bass and soaring lead guitar fire as the melodious riff then cascades to the ground while the drumming threatens to take the roof off, the bass blows your mind and the vocals snarl to perfection. All this then leads back to the way it all began as that ringing, chiming guitar backdrop takes the song to its final resting place over lurching rhythm section strength.
“Rewind” begins with one of the most fantastic sounding guitar riffs on the planet as this mass of dirty, churning, machine-gun guitar work introduces a song that has the drums crunching, driving and thundering all over the place while the bass work threatens to take the windows out. Over all this, the vocals just let rip in another storm of a song that makes anger sound so immensely pleasurable. The song drives towards a restrained furnace of a midsection as the guitar chimes in the distance over the rhythm section before, with a roar of the song's title, the vocals take off and the whole thing blazes another napalm-driven path to crush your skull to smithereens. “Sublime” kicks off with what you think is actually going to be a more bouncy yet still powerful, almost surprisingly commercial, rhythm structure as your feet tap along and the guitar chimes solidly, only then for this molten mass of blazing guitar riffing ups the anti and the whole thing fires up, before briefly subsiding, only to erupt even more powerfully for the chorus, and it's this back and forth between the restrained strength of the verse and the hurricane force fireworks that constitutes the chorus, which keeps the song rolling along with comet-like unstoppability, the vocal rising up and tearing the place apart as the huge intensity of guitar riffery and rhythm section thunder drive towards the awesome instrumental climax which ends the song. “Tonight” is the album's moment of reflection, only even here the drums crush you despite being relatively sedate, as the bass throbs and the guitars is heard as this sonorous depth of lone chiming splendour, the almost languid vocal intoning the lyric. This then erupts in a controlled and restrained, but no less explosive, mass of metal guitar force and thunderous bass over solid drumming, before the song drops back down and another menacing verse ensues over the solid, upfront, rolling drumming that is an absolute delight. The whole song is a furnace heat slice of metal balladry that's got more force to its decelerated pace than you could ever imagine possible from such an arrangement, and between that and the song's dynamics, you get caught up in one absolute gem of menacing songwriting and delivery.
“You” gets things back into action with another snarl of a menacing vocal over another delicious sounding grungy metal riff, tight and dramatic drumming firepower and disembowelling bass thunder before all that erupts into this rocketship of metal rage, the vocal positively on fire and letting loose all the venom it can muster, as guitars are piled on above the climactic drumming, the massive sounding bass and the song twists and turns between menace and mass destruction, all sounding simply awesome yet again as yet another whirlwind of a song is played, arranged and sung to sky-high metal perfection. “God Is Dead” is another supercharged slice of dynamic metal rage, the hook delivered over huge sounding guitar riffs and searing leads with the thunder of the drums and the stomach-churning bass delivering the motorised drive, as the song roars with anger for the choruses and blazes with burning intensity on the verses. “Landslide”is simply a storm force slice of metal dynamics that uses the space between riffs as a hook initially before that now familiar fiery heat of molten guitar riffing allied with rumbling drums beaten within an inch of their life and that blazing bass, all roar under a vocal that's filled with rage, angst, venom and menace. The song leads into another swirling psychedelic lead guitar break, so brief before the band then catch fire and, along with the deep emotional howl of the vocal, goes full pelt into accelerated metal nirvana, a typhoon of riffs and rhythms sounding like the best thing you ever heard as the song drives to its fading, fiery finale.
Finally, “Fade” starts with a siren-like guitar whine as ringing guitar, crisp cymbal splashes, lurching drums and deep bass reveal an almost menacing tranquility of a vocal, the song slowly heading towards an inrush of lead psychedelic guitar before the whole thing intensifies and erupts but refuses to accelerate, letting the dynamic firepower do its stuff, hooking you in by virtue of relative restraint, eerie menace, dramatic drumming, almost hypnotic bell-like guitar work and a solid river of bass, the song cascading from sky-high emotive metal heaven to deep-down tension-filled gorgeousness, surrounded all the time by the threat of metal breakout, but managing to stay restrained and end the album in a more sublime manner than you'd have thought any molten metal trio would have been capable of delivering.
In short, without a wasted second on the album, this is not only a triumph for the band, but an absolute peak of metal greatness – and yet they're still unnoticed in all the major rock circles and still unsigned – but I get the feeling with this five-star corker of an album, all that's about to change.