Album Review: Thecityisours - Coma
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Thecityisours release their sophomore album, Coma, later this month, their first since Low a couple of years back and the first with new vocalist Oli Duncanson who shares microphone duties with guitarist Mikey Page after replacing the departed Sam Stolliday.
Coma is very much a record with a divided soul: half of the album is something of a fragile meditation on the idea of loss, voiced through more commercial sounding tracks. Does it Keep You Up? starts with a nu-metal aspect, close to the feel of a Linkin Park song, with the sharp guitar sounds, before heading to more melodic post-hardcore waters.
During these moments, Coma plays with the more commercial side of Thecityisours’ sound, blending emo-charged Metalcore moments with accessible pop-punk stylings on the likes of So Sad and Death of Me. The way the album has been structured sees the first eight songs play a game of turn-taking between the heavy and the fragile.
Leading single, Regret About Me, has the mass appeal hues to open the door to mainstream success and the neo-ballad, Madre lets the band soak up the sound of gentle strings and imagine a sea of lighters – or telephones as seems to be the modern method – illuminating the darkness.
As mentioned above, the track Death of Me is post-hardcore at its most commercial, featuring a dual vocal combination and fragile guitar lines; but, below the surface lurks the snorting ferocious beast – Thecityisours' Mr Hyde if you will – in the form of a massive sounding low end, desperate to be set free.
And set free it is, as the other half of Coma sees the band flexing their hardcore muscles and dropping some hard-hitting riffs and monumental breakdowns. With a title like Violent you should not be expecting rainbows and unicorns and Thecityisours deliver the goods with a pounding rhythm and multiple Metalcore switches.
Much the same can be said of Dangerous but here, as with the album’s title track, Thecityisours combine the heavy music and gruff vocals with a more accessible and possibly even gentle – despite Coma’s dissonant riff – approach.
Only Human has a dalliance with the light and shade but, thankfully, Body Count is a slamming slice of heavy hardcore with more than a little industrial influence.
The album’s two final songs coalesce the disparate aspects of Thecityisours' sound and act as though underscoring Coma in its closing moments. Barely Alive is a mass of polyrhythms and the occasional Slipknot motif in the guitar sound, all wrapped up in a cloak of Djent. Save You With My Love is the longest song on Coma and ends the record with the most fitting five-minutes of the session, leaving you in no doubt as to what Thecityisours are all about.
Coma is a mature album of loss and personal discovery, with more than its fair share of in-yer-face moments. Whichever floats your boat you are well catered for with this release.
