Having been floored by The Rhapsody Tapes and more so Flip Phone Fantasy, I owed it to the Australian band to go back and investigate their Metalcore roots. Outsider is a short seventeen minute, six track affair of generic scene music with little to distinguish itself in the wake of the Architects take on this sound. A similar intensity takes hold with booming Djent tone guitars fraying up assaults of chunky guitar noise between hazardous throaty screams and a sprinkling of vulnerable clean vocals intended to expressive the emotive side where introspective melodies intervene.
The sound itself has never drew me in however I'll give credit to the band for making it an enjoyable listen. Their performance is capable with a few notable hiccups in its more complex arrangements. Production is solid and in one or two moments they show a little sensibility for groove that might just be early manifestations of their progression as a band into Nu Metal territory. At this point though they are firmly part of the trend and given I was never too keen on it, I don't really know to what extent you'd say this is original or not but at least it makes for a good listen!
Rating: 4/10