Album Review: Honour Crest - 'Spilled Ink'

Honour Crest's new full-length, 'Spilled Ink', is a largely uninspired affair that serves only to add itself to the ever-growing number of generic electronicore releases. Everything on offer here has pretty much been done before, not to mention better. The production value is noteworthy but doesn't do much to improve the lacklustre ideas on offer here.

'Spilled Ink' does very little to excite or entertain, both instrumentally and vocally. As is the case with bands of this particular ilk, the foundation for Honour Crest's riff bank mostly consists of chugging open chords and not a whole lot else. A lot of the time the band sounds like they haven't quite made up their minds as to whether they want to play typical, middle-of-the-road metalcore, or middle-of-the-road "djent".

The electronic elements, for what it's worth, are actually utilised quite well. Synths are used effectively to create atmosphere and tension, and often comes as a welcome break from the constant chugfest. As mentioned before, the production quality on this album is commendable which also helps to make these aspects shine through.

As far as vocals go it's a pretty stock-standard affair here too. Harsh vocals are powerful but uninteresting, while cleans are just entirely uninteresting. The whole album probably could have gone without clean vocals altogether, as they're used sparingly and don't add any value whatsoever when they do come in. They're simply flat and boring.

When it comes down to it, 'Spilled Ink' is an album that simply fails to present anything new or intriguing. There are plenty of records out there more deserving of your time.

Rather than stand out and define themselves, Honour Crest are content to sit back and do what almost everyone else is doing, and do it the exact same way. This whole album probably could've been written in one sitting. If you're looking for fresh and unique tunes you're better off looking somewhere else.

1. Spilled Ink

2. Djentle

3. Origin

4. Glaciers

5. Bridges

6. In Irons

7. Mountains

8. Allergen

9. Eclipse

10. The Further

11. Undertow