EDGE OF SPIRIT

It seems that veteran hardcore act EDGE OF SPIRIT is a pretty big deal in its native Japan, as well as having made a sizeable splash in areas outside of it. They've certainly earned the recognition after working hard at it for 13 years; selling 16,500 copies of debut album "Screaming for the Truth" (Sony Music Japan) right off the bat, playing 700 shows, getting on multiple high level tours in Japan, and gigging in Australia, Korea, Canada, and the States. And that's why it is a minor shame that EDGE OF SPIRIT's self-titled fourth album can't be given a higher level of praise. It is a competently written, professionally recorded, and hard hitting album that doesn't stand out in any way from around 100 similar albums that have been released in the last seven or eight years.

At least that's 100 of the more tolerable albums that have mined territory between melodic hardcore and Americanized AT THE GATES Swede-core (closer to the former) out of about 900 released during that period. Ah shit, I don't know, maybe it's in the thousands. The point is that EDGE OF SPIRIT isn't much more than an average representation of a sub-genre that has been run so far into the ground that the only remaining use for any of it would be as material to score the next film adaptation of Jules Verne's "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Those that have studied the playbook closely over the years will appreciate some decent songwriting that at times offers sufficient levels of melody to keep one's interest beyond the tough-guy chug 'n stutter. In that regard, "Set in Sight" and "The Departing One" are pretty good, "Songs of Truth" follows from a ways back, and "Dear Fuckers" is bland melodic metalcore at best. Vocalist Sho offers one heck of a powerful and prototypical screamy bark, but it varies so little as to almost become a distraction.

The fact that the quintet was probably playing this 'core style well before the floodgates opened changes nothing as far as the album's ability to stick out in a crowd is concerned. In short, this one would have sounded fresher and more exciting had it been released during the first half of the decade. Even then, it wouldn't have approached genre-defining. Add a point or so if you worship the style and couldn't care less about opinions to the contrary.