Album Reviews : Arcadia/Bury The Fallen – Worlds Collide

At full pace, “Fragile” kicks off this four track split, with Adelaide’s Arcadia strutting their stuff for the first half, and it’s a style that you’ll be all too familiar with. Both tracks are that brand of ‘modern metal’, sitting in the space between melodic thrash and hardcore. There are a lot of bands doing it at the moment (although I guess that can be said for most genres, it’s just more obvious in this scene), and it’s a tough area to really stand out in. Unfortunately, with these two tracks at least, Arcadia don’t. The riffs aren’t overly memorable, and the breakdown-ish part thirty seconds into “Fragile” seems to come in awkwardly early, before the song actually develops. The harsh screams are one-dimensional, while the cleans seem more like average backing-vocals which are smothered by the rest of the mix. Their sound is thick and undeniably polished, so those obsessed with this style of music may have some fun moshing along, but in such a vast ocean of similar bands it’s tough seeing Arcadia really breach the surface.

Bury The Fallen might not score any more points on the originality scale with their half, but it is that bit more enjoyable. Leaning more towards the hardcore side of things, their overall sound is huge with fat, chunky riffs and nice, smooth growls. Again though, the clean vocals are unnecessary, with the passages on “Left For Dead” coming and going so quickly it almost seems like he accidentally came in too early and then realised two lines later. Regardless, they’re a bit too weak for such a masculine overall sound, which is made especially apparent when both vocalists are going at once. They just don’t fit together. “Howdowns & Throwdowns” is as heavy as you’d expect from the name, with the faster moments even having a slight hint of Amon Amarth to them.

Neither band really brings anything exciting to the table, however if you’re a fan of one then you might dig the other, which is essentially the whole purpose of a split release really. So on that front at least, Worlds Collide works.

Bands: Arcadia & Bury The Fallen
Album: Worlds Collide
Year: 2012
Genre: Metal
Label: Independent
Origin: Adelaide, Australia
https://www.facebook.com/ArcadiaMetal
https://www.facebook.com/burythefallenmetal

Track list:
1. Fragile (Arcadia)
2. Torn in Two (Arcadia)
3. Left For Dead (Bury The Fallen)
4. Hoedowns & Throwdowns (Bury The Fallen)