Kicking Tyres: Reviewing Rise With Honour
Aberdeen prog metal/djentificators, Rise With Honour, approached me with their EP, Skylines, a couple of days ago. Godamn son! I’d be damned if it wasn’t fucking epic! There’s so much talent in Scotland, but how many Scottish bands have you heard make it? Alestorm? Is that it…?
BUT NO MORE. If there’s anything this website stands for , it’s SCOTLAND IS METAL AS FUCK. Ok, im not limited to only Scotland, i cover metal from everywhere, but just like them ‘Mericans, i have a lot of pride for my home country – even if your chances of getting stabbed by a gang of Jakies with 3 teeth shared between their whole family and a smack habit that makes Donny Tourette cringe are pretty high. But fuck it!
There is so much awesome in this picture.
The Benefit of Hindsight, the first track on the EP, blew me away. I seen influence from the incredible TesseracT instantly, and the vocalist, Graeme McDonald, kinda reminds me of Eric Kalsbeek, the ex-Textures vocalist from the Silhouettes era. This is definitely one of the most promising bands i’ve heard in the Scottish Djent scene. The riffs on this song are the tits, bro, ranging from the polyrhythmic monstrosities to ambient movements to pounding grooves.
Kicking the Tyres is my favourite track on the release, the track kicks off with some brilliant riffing from Scott Forrest, Valentyn Tkach and Callum Hutchinson, supported by impeccable drumming from Andrew Beattie. I cannot describe the groove in this song, it is just fantastic. It is the kind of song that makes you want to go fucking tits mental!!
I would love to hear it live, so if the band ever finds itself in Edinburgh or Stirling, i will do my best to get there! Here’s hoping for a Rise With Honour/ Sectioned show!
Skylines is classic djent with some added tech-death, which is definitely not a bad thing. One of the crowning aspects of this band is their ability to write such grooves. Each riff has such energy. Their chords are beautifully placed and work well with the structure of the riffs. Graeme’s voice can transform from brutal-fucking-roars to epic cleans in seconds.
Overall, this EP is a solid release and i will be listening to it a lot from now on! If there is any problem i have at all with this EP, its that i can barely hear the bass. What i can hear sounds shit hot, but it is often overpowered by the other instruments and as a bassist myself, i find that pretty annoying. Turn it up just a tad next time? I wanna hear doz lows!
Go like the band on facebook! Listen to their tunes! Download the EP, its FREE! Keep updated on their upcoming releases, because i guarantee you will be impressed.
Also, if you can, vote for them on bedroom jam!
And upon concluding this lovely article, i leave you with a message from the band.
Kicking Tyres. The Epitome of Djent. Clearly.
-FME
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