Artist: Brides
Album: Ocular.Unveil
Year: 2008
Rel. Date: 2009-03-14
Genre: Hardcore
Label: Visible Noise
Source: CD
Type: Album
Encoder: LAME v3.97 -V2 --VBR-NEW
Quality: VBR, 44.1kHz, Joint Stereo

Ocular.Unveil is an exciting debut, from the first
few seconds of the first track Beholder Brides
claim your attention with heavy but well
structured and melodic noise. This is not a
perfect album, but its as near as so that any
shortcomings quickly get forgotten about. From the
hooky and tuneful riffs of Endless Sea of Dirac
which are so catchy that you move without
realising youre doing it, to the aggressive and
emotive layered vocals of The Cold Wealth, Brides
gleefully disregard genre boundaries, just using
whatever the song requires which means that you
are treated to punk, post-hardcore, metal and
straight-up rock (amongst other things) on the
same record and often on the same track.

Their multi-layered vocal approach, complex riffs
and memorable melodies give this band an
incredibly approachable sound, but the rough
edges, heavy-fuzzy guitars, solid drums and
sometimes jagged rhythms keep you interested and
make every track different, so what you get is
something seriously varied but very cohesive. Eye
Despise The Faceless draws all these elements
together with what are arguably the best riffs on
the album the tune is brilliant, vocally it soars
and the fuzz makes your skin tingle. There are no
stand-out tracks here, mainly because the album
comes together so well as a whole, but also
because any of these tracks is single material on
its own.

These are well constructed tunes with an eye on
both complexity and good sing along sections. The
combination is at once reassuringly familiar and
intoxicating the record draws on many influences
(Thrice, Coheed and Cambria and Fugazi are just
three bands that spring to mind) but never steals
from them, if only it were longer, at eight tracks
it leaves you gagging for more. A definite
contender for album of the year.

1. Beholder 2:04
2. Serpent, Im Nothing But Your Anchor 3:01
3. Endless Sea Of Dirac 3:04
4. The Cold Wealth 2:22
5. Eye Despise The Faithless 3:05
6. Carcinoma 3:40
7. Frank West 3:29
8. Velvet Ground 2:56
23:41