LIGHT OF THE FINAL DAWN The Coming Strife Records Compilation

Labels don’t do compilations like this often enough anymore, and so it gladdened my heart to see that one of the top heavy music labels in the UK made the decision to hearken back to a different era with this set of fourteen tracks from both established acts and relative newcomers, such as recent interviewees Durendal. The compilation rips out of the gate with Cauldron's "The Last Words II: Seasons in the Dark," a manic bloodbath of frenetic metalcore featuring a snare cranked to high heaven and one of the nastiest breakdowns I’ve heard this year to close the track out. The aforementioned Durendal are next with the sprawling approaching six minute "By the Sword," an example of first-rate melodic metalcore that recalls early Parkway Drive with a dash of Poison the Well.

Really the defining feature of this compilation is that most of these bands have looked to the first cohort of what we would now recognize as formative of modern metalcore when it was still very much an outgrowth of and therefore closer to its roots in hardcore. I had very strong 2004/Trustkill Records-type vibes throughout, although having said that, it’s not like the contents are merely the next generation LARP-ing their elders. Instead, what I think it shows is that there was a lot more sonic ground to cover there that is now being re-visited and expanded upon by a new generation.

I don’t want to cover every song on the compilation for this review because I don’t want to spoil all of the surprises, but a few other tracks that I wanted to highlight included the album closer "Torturing Countless Souls" by Morbideity that sounds like vintage Throwdown with a soupçon of death metal guitar; Dandelion’s "Hawthorne’s Tea Stained Confession," Thrill Seeker-era August Burns Red mixed with some early Norma Jean and Killswitch Engage; Killing Me Softly’s "Light No Longer Rests on the Riverbed," a mix of Converge, early Every Time I Die, and mosh metal with this interesting almost 90s rock/Silverchair-type part in it; and xDeliverancex’s "To Walk With You in Paradise for Eternity," some premium ATTHEGATESCORE (if you were a Stuff You Will Hate reader back in the day you’ll know why I stylized it like this) with a healthy dose of nervous breakdown-core for good measure. The bottom line is this is a great compilation sure to delight both the core Furnace Fest set and new jacks alike in love with that sound brought forward into the modern era.