Band: Palisades
Album: I’m Not Dying Today EP
Label: Rise Records

Summary: Post-Hardcore is a very diversified genre. It stretches from softer mostly singing bands all the way to metalcore acts. Palisades finds a nice blend of their post-hardcore with a very vocal driven approach. Louis Miceli’s vocal structures and harmonies are a key focal point with amazing flow and add depth on the track. There’s rarely a part where he isn’t singing. I’m Not Dying Today is a very up-tempo record and when they do decide to slow it down, guitarist Earl Halasan’s smooth harmonizing programming is a great addition to this band.
While not falling into any Electro sub-category, Palisades incorporates enough programming to keep up with the rest of the field without over powering their own songs or drowning out actual instrumentation. The EP does have chugging and some tough parts but mostly stays away from breakdowns.Their single “Immortal” is a good stab at a catchy chorus without committing to the pop rock side of things. The single has a definite sense of hope and promise with the lyrics.

“I’ll keep my head above the bay.
I will drown another day.
And when the skies roll out the darkest days,
I will shout and I will say,
You’ve made a grave but I won’t lay.
Oh there’s no way.
No I’m not dying, no I’m not dying today.”

…hence the album title. The song “Seamless Ending” dives deeper into the catchy choruses with an almost addictive chorus.
Palisades made a solid effort with this EP and their vocal driven songs. I have high expectations for their full-length. You can easily tell these vocals flows will progress and fuel this band into the fore front of Rise’s finest.

Standout Tracks: Bury It, Immortal, Seamless Ending

In Short: With a faster, more up-tempo brand of post-hardcore, Palisades is lead by their harmonizing melodies and vocal structure. This EP is a great show of sign of things to come!

Rating: 6.5/10

-Matt Musselwhite

Band: Secrets
Album: The Ascent
Label: Velocity/Rise Records

Summary: For far too long the metalcore and post-hardcore genre has been bogged down with generic bands following the same formula and creating the same sound and even worst, the same singing styles. While San Diego, CA’s Secrets has the blueprint the rest of the bands in the genre have, they actually come into their own with incredible singing lead by vocalist Richard Rogers. Not only does the band keep you interested with pop-radio worthy choruses, the singing is actually genuine, something we haven’t had much of recently within the scene.
Secrets dives into common issues felt amongst society from heartbreak (The Hardest Part), betrayal (40 Below), abandonment (The Best You Can’t Be), and revenge (Blindside). The only difference is with Secrets approach to these issues in their lyrical content, they mean it. You can tell they’ve been there from the lyrics to their approach and passion driving the heartfelt words across to listeners. Blindside is a perfect example of this lyrical content with
“I wont lay victim to your betrayal and lies
That’s why I moved on but you just sit there and cry
You’re the one who said that you were better than this
That we were holding you down
Like anchors to your ships
All you can say now
I just wish you would fucking grow up
All I can say now
I just wish that you would fucking give up!”

Their approach to breakdowns stands out as well as you hear more tone in Michael Sherman’s guitar in the mix as apposed to the same generic chugging that we’ve heard repetitively for years now. They’re heavy, off-timing, and dynamic. You will bob your head one minute and open up singing in front of your mirror the next.
Secrets proves that San Diego is still on the map for pumping out creative and real bands for our music scene. These guys could quite possibly be THE next big thing. Only time will tell, but we’ve got our ears glued to their speakers.

Standout Tracks: Genesis, 40 Below, Blindside, The Ascent

In Short: Secrets not only breathes a fresh breath of life into the genre, but gives it mouth to mouth CPR giving you everything you love about the metalcore/post-hardcore genre with tantalizing breakdowns and raw genuine catchy choruses.

Rating: 8.5/10

Reviewed by Matt Musselwhite

Band: Suicide Silence
Album: The Black Crown
Label: Century Media

Summary: Suicide Silence has always been known for their heavy rhythmic chugging and bone crushing vocals and The Black Crown is no different.. Frontman Mitch Lucker delivers an always stellar vocal performance and for the first time ever, he talks on the record adding a sense of build up to tracks like “You Only Live Once” and “Smashed” where Lucker utters “Let’s take our lives back…let’s take our fucking lives BACK!”
The Riverside, California Deathcore outfit gives fans exactly what they love about the band compiled into one stunning EP (almost full length with 9 tracks). The band even incorporates Nu-Metal styles into the genre with influences from their childhood favorites KoRn and the Deftones. On “Fuck Everything” Mitch gives you an in depth look at the disgusting state of humanity and encourages you to hate it alongside him muttering “If you hate the world and you hate what you see then say this with me ‘fuck everything.’” On “You Only Live Once” guitarist Mark Heylmun gives a subtle yet eerie solo. Suicide Silence combines the right mix of everything you love about the Deathcore genre with real metal aspects combining chugging, rhythm, and solo’s on nearly every track.
With their stature significantly bigger than their last time around, Mitch’s band recruits the help of KoRn’s Johnathon Davis on the track “Witness The Addiction” making for a great colab as you take a peek into the life of an addict as the duo expresses their views on addiction. Producer Steve Evetts (Wonder Years, A Static Lullaby, Dillinger Escape Plan) adds a good touch to the record with slightly less guitar distortion, something new to the band as their guitars are always extremely distorted and deathy. The record as a whole stands up to even the most solid Death Metal releases by bringing core Suicide Silence fans exactly what you’d want to hear from the band; to the point, no bullshit.

Standout Tracks: You Only Live Once, Fuck Everything, Smashed

In Short: Suicide gives fans exactly what they want from the band as they head off to bigger and better things becoming label free agents.

Rating: 9/10

Reviewed by Matt Musselwhite

Band: Decoder
Album: Decoder
Label: Rise Records

The band Decoder is comprised of several different formal members of the bands Oceana, Versa Emerge and Of Machines. Decoder has a very unique and distinct sound to them that separates them from most bands on Rise’s roster. One of the reasons we find Decoder so unique is because their music is a lot less fast paced than most of the music out right now not to mention that they have a very grunge feel to them yet still heavy.

The unclean vocals by Keith Jones aren’t as low as they used to be in Oceana as they are more angsty and less brutal. Spencer and Keith both have the ability to sing clean which harmonizes perfectly on the right notes.

The song “The Taker” is a perfect track to start with. Starting out with Keith’s lows and then some guitar passing on the vocals to Spencer who belts out every lyric flawlessly. Soon both vocalists are singing/screaming capturing the perfect sound along with each instrument continuously jamming out to every note. The next song that caught our attention was “Holding On” which is a slower more serious song with piano. The song starts out with a piano solo accompanied by Spencer singing some sentimental lyrics. Soon enough the piano starts to build up suspense where eventually guitars and drums come into play. After the first couple of minutes Keith joins in and really drives the song home until both vocalists stop and the drums and guitars fade into a piano solo for a few seconds until the song ends. Other songs to lookout for are “Dreamwalker” and “Conflicts”. After some member changes, Decoder has re-invented themselves as Lead Hands. Look out for their sophomore release!

-Reviewed by Thomas Dykeman