Bowers
Never Made It Home
(Self-Release)
Bowers Never Made It Home takes the melodic hardcore prototype and shatters it, picking up the biggest pieces and gluing them together for a surprisingly fantastic album.
Admittedly, things start off a little slow with “Guilt & Doubt”, which sounds like a wet dream from Korn frontman Jonathan Davis, but the band shows their true (and thankfully not Nu Metal) colors starting with “How To Stay Silent”. We’re all extremely lucky the band didn’t follow their own how to guide. It’s all uphill from there somehow, crescendoing with the powerful “Waiting For the Fall”, the midway track that’s heavy on the melodic and light on the hardcore. “Room For Sin” is another melodic and forceful song that feels like the band is curbing their intensity, letting it out in little bursts and fits (“Youth”, “Busted Lip”) while letting the softness take the lead and lead you into the album. Bitter” recalls winds that are like the title, blowing through your headphones and chilling you almost immediately. “Life (Taking Your Breath)” does just that, coming out of the gate with a power that could burn you if you get to close. “A Ghostly Idol” sounds more Warped Tour Pop Punk than Fest Hardcore, bringing an almost radio friendly element to the album. “Unbridled” is another song that holds back, reigning in all its natural impulses until the 30 second mark and then letting it all go. It mixes all the aspects of the album together in one 4 minute tirade, going from the melody of “Busted Lip” and “Waiting For the Fall” to the crunch of “Life (Taking Your Breath)” and ending things with an all-out instrumental that really shows off the band’s passion and raw power.
Barring the strangeness of the first track, the album is a keeper, one you’ll keep coming back to mostly because you won’t be able to help yourself. Bowers are a band that can do anything, and this album proves it.
Purchase Never Made It Home here.
