obey the brave is the new band of alex erian, former vocalist of disbanded despised icon (a shame). i loved his voice in the context of despised icon's modern technical death metal. it brought some hardcore vibe to it which made them pretty unique. so as i heard he would start a hardcore band i was all over it. when i got their debut 7" 'ups and downs' i said already that they don't reinvent the wheel but i liked it anyway. listening to the opening lines in their intro 'lifestyle' i chuckled inevitably.
not trying to reinvent the wheel
we keep it simple
we keep it real
these lines say it all. you get nothing what you didn't hear before. old parkway drive, the ghost inside (they are also on epitaph, coincedence?) are the bands that came to my mind immediately. but admittedly it's all played on a high quality level. catchy melodies, crew shouts, break downs. so with the first preparing lines and a damn cool hip hop skit ('grim') they got my sympathy (even the clean guest vovals on 'burning bridges' of ligeia's keith holuk couldn't destroy that :). better a band knowing they are not the most innovative musicians around than a band jumping on every new trend.
the picture on the kings road europe site shows a kind of opaque yellow vinyl. the sticker on the cover to verify the colour is pretty yellow too. the vinyl however is definitely a clear orange. don't know how many were pressed.
printed dust sleeve + cd with the entire album. epitaph records. 2012.
