"Chaos" is the much anticipated debut record of teenage band Unlocking The Truth from Brooklyn, New York. As three black males from the home of Hip Hop it is quite out of the ordinary they have found Metal but that's hardly whats remarkable about the trio. Established in 2007 the band weren't even teenagers when they got started out. Youtube is littered with videos of these three as kids playing on the streets of the famous time square in downtown New York. At a very young age front man Malcolm Brickhouse developed an admirable attitude for life, citing a strong work ethic and desire for following his dreams of making a success of his band. Considering the band have toured with Metallic at least one of those dreams has been fulfilled. For a debut record its a solid introduction to the band. In its best moments they show sparks of being a rather special act, however a fair few tracks drift into obscurity with underwhelming riffs fixed into standard song structures. The point though should be that their is much to get excited about, they show a ton of potential.
Pinpointing their specific sound and style isn't exactly easy but they do have a broad appeal about them. Its Metal that's not about extremities or some over encompassing theme or aesthetic. In Malcolm's guitar style can be heard hints of Slipknot, Metallica and Disturbed and in terms of style, Nu, Alternative, Groove, Heavy Metal and quite often Metalcore. Its a blender that gives the album quite a diverse set of riffs however the simplistic song structures tone down the differences on display. His singing style is also a strength for the band, laying down clean vocals with a force and grit to them that work great for the metallic tone. In moments he moves to screams but nothing menacing, on one or two tracks dropping in a slight growl. Lyrically the album is loaded with light digestible language, some of which is somewhat angsty and there are plenty of great chorus hooks that will get you singing along.
For a trio they sound full of power and strength on the record, the production gives the baselines a real thudding clunk and dense tone, the guitars fill out the space above with a welcoming, satisfying distortion tone that's got energy, spirit and aggression without over doing it. The drums sound fantastic, very roomy and authentic sounding symbols. The snare is sharp and the pedals sound fab, very deep and audible, the cutoff is fast but you can hear every kick so clear. Great mix for a reasonable record which does have a weak stretch between "A Tide" and "Numbing". These songs weren't quite to my taste however they did have some strong riffs. I think this debut really highlights their potential to do great and we certainly get a taste of what they are about.
Favorite Song: Monster, Made Of Stone, Ravens, Escape, Take Control
Rating: 6/10