If you had asked me a few months ago to recommend you a melodic hardcore band I would have had to tell you that I really don’t know any good ones; maybe I would have told you that Close Your Eyes might be something for you…but today I can confidently tell you that Counterparts are the band that you must absolutely check out. Specifically their new record The Difference Between Hell And Home.
To cut to the chase: the five Canadians have even further improved their musical prowess in comparison to the predecessor The Current Will Carry Us. Every single and drumbeat sounds just right and contributes to making the entirety of the eleven songs a beautiful masterpiece. Which results in the fact that both the heavy and melodic parts go hand in hand as if they were best friends, so to speak, without following the good old “melodic-breakdown-heavy” formula. The production is, I would say, the most balanced one out of their three endeavors thus far: every instrument is clearly audible and well accentuated.
The main selling point, to me, for Counterparts are their very strong lyrics…this has always been the case and it didn’t change on this album. Writing about them wouldn’t do them justice, so I strongly urge you to give them a thorough listen, or preferably read them in the booklet. At least to me they feature a lot of topics that I can personally identify with, whether that is good or not is not for me to tell.
To wrap it up: if you have never really given the genre a chance because you were unsure where to start…look no further. TDBHAH is hands-down as close as it gets to being a perfect representation of this type of music. But, as I said above, you only get the full experience if you pay attention to the message as well. For more info you can visit the band’s Facebook page and get an impression by watching the video below. To quote the people from South Park: blame Canada…for good music in this case.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpZTJKPLVFc]