Album Review: Sworn In - 'The Death Card'

Sworn In have quickly climbed their way up in only two years. Now signed to Razor & Tie, we are presented with debut album, 'The Death Card'.

The band stated on their twitter, "We don’t want this cd to make you feel pissed off. We want it to make you feel like you’re insane." The group's music tends to stray away from the happier side of life and they have captured that insanity in this album well. The music drips with despair, anger and insanity. It is filled with brutality, growling and intense vocals along with pounding guitar work that holds some nice technicality that manage to captivate you no matter how dark the themes might get.

Opening track 'XIII' at first listen sounds a bit like a mess, but in conjunction with the whole album it is a great beginning to show you what's to come. The general sound is creepy, the vocals slow but still angry, sounding a bit like someone possessed. It's eerie and completely enticing.

'Hypocrisy' gets straight to the point. The vocals in this track, and throughout the whole album, are seriously intense. This track also has some nu-metal vibes peaking through the surface. Then we are met with 'Mindless', which is interesting as it poses clean vocals, which are a little slice of calm in the storm. They do work well, there is no denying vocalist Tyler Dennen also has quite a nice clean voice.

The instrumentals show a great improvement from some of the band's old work. The album has some nice solo moments and shows a depth of skill rather than falling into the hardcore trap of just simple guitars with constant breakdowns. The songs throughout the full-length just keep flowing together really well continuing on the intensity and the overall creepy sounds. However, the two interludes throughout the record are somewhat unnecessary. The only real negative aspect of the album is the close similarity to the songs, but they are executed well and will make fans happy.

'The Death Card' is overall a pretty good album. It's raw, aggressive and really shows the progression that these musicians have made. The album is nothing revolutionary for metalcore, but the album is put together well and the vocal and instrumental styles work rather well.

'The Death Card' is a well executed album. It's aggressive, missanthropic and totally captivating. It's nothing totally revolutionary for metalcore, but fans of Sworn In and of the genre should like this album. Sworn In have managed to mature as a band while continuing to hold that classic, heavy metalcore sound.

1. XIII

2. Hypocrisy

3.Mindless

4.Dead Soul

5.Senseless

6. A Song For The Nameless

7. Snake Eyes

8.Deadpan

9. Mute

10. Three Cheers

11.Bitter Blood

12.Death

13. Return (Heartless)