Rise of the Northstar - Welcame

One thing is for sure, Rise of the Northstar could not have picked a more appropriate name for their band. The band has been making big waves in the Parisian Hardcore scene since very early on in their career, starting with few demo songs posted on their myspace page and leading to extensive touring overseas and music videos reaching 1 million views. Their success story is an exceptional one, considering that they reached this far without any help from labels or management (that is before getting picked up by Nuclear Blast recently). Today we're here to examine the band's latest step in their promising career: the release of their first full-length album, produced by none other than Zeuss (Hatebreed, Madball).

RoTNS's sound is deeply rooted the Metallic Hardcore category, but with a stronger emphasis on NY-style hardcore influences.
One of the elements that help the band stand out from the rest is their imagery and lyrical themes centered around their love for japanese culture. Nevertheless, the comparison between RoTNS and Hatebreed seems almost inevitable, especially considering the fact that the band decided to spice up their sound with thrash metal influences with this release.
Every song on this album is a soundtrack to a warzone, armed to the teeth with heaviness that will make your jaw drop. Between the rap-metal verses and catchy gang vocal sections, the band makes extensive use of breakdowns and 2 step grooves to keep your blood pumping. Unfortunately, while the first few tracks seem to hint to a record with some diversity, the album quickly falls short in maintaining the listener's interest. The sharp modern metal production on the record, while lining the band up with some of the biggest names in modern metal, only helps to make their compositions appear stale in comparison. Unfortunately, some of the lyrics on the record also suffer from the same issue, appearing uninspired even by hardcore standards.

Overall, Welcame offers some killer left hooks hinting towards the bands' potential (eg: the title track, Samurai Spirit) but has a bit too many filler tracks and song ideas that could've used a little more work. My overall feel on this album as a standalone listening experience is unfortunatly one of slight disappointment with regards to their previous singles. However, there is no doubt in my mind that these songs will prove to be extremely effective in a live setting in opening up massive moshpits. Nevertheless, I'd recommend any fan of Hardcore, Beatdown and Metallic Hardcore to give this record a spin and to catch these guys' upcoming release party show next january! (details below)


Robin

Rise of the Northstar
Official website
http://www.riseofthenorthstar.com/

Next show @Le Divan du Monde, Paris (Album release show)
http://www.digitick.com/rise-of-the-northstar-guests-concert-divan-du-monde-paris-23-janvier-2015-css4-digitick-pg101-ri2777377.html