Embraced is four piece "melodic hardcore" band from Panama City, Florida. An Orchestrated Failure is Embraced first release on the new and upcoming record label, Theory 8 Records (the goodbye letter, copeland, movies with heros). I was able to see Embraced at Cornerstone 2002 and they put on an amazing show. Embraced comes onto music scene that is already too full of "melodic hardcore" bands. It seems like it is the new fad or something. Don't get me wrong there are some great "melodic hardcore" bands out there like Hopesfall, Poison The Well, and Shai Hulud but the scene is becoming too overwhelmed with them all...kindof like the ska fad a few years back. So what is a band to do to be original but still play a style of music that seems so generic now? An Orchestrated Failure is their first step in trying to prove their creativity and originality.
For Theory 8 and Embraced, I would have to say that this album is a great stepping stone for them both. For a beginning label and a new band, they both did a great job with the production values of this album. It sounds great. The album contains 6 songs an intro. The average length of the songs are around 5 minutes. Embraced doesn't go into any long metal solos or anything like that so I was rather impressed by that. They do a great job of combining singing and screaming...not just combining it but giving you just enough of each and it isn't generic. I don't like when bands only have the singing parts just in the chorus sections...that kindof annoys me and seems like its just forced. They also don't sing the whole album and just here and there throw in a good scream...its a very good mixture. The lyrics are solid as well, deep and personal but easy to understand.
My favorite song is the last track. I find myself singing a long to it each time I listen to it.
There is one complaint I have about the album is on the 4th song. In the middle of the song, there is a distortion put on the vocals that makes it sound very much like the vocals of Thursday. I didn't like that with Thursday and I didn't like it with Embraced. This is probably one of my favorite EP's of the year. If you like Hopesfall, Poison the Well, Thursday, Shai Hulud, Converge and others...I recommend picking this album up at www.theory8records.com
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