Sworn Enemy, Beginning of the End

I always find it interesting when a hardcore band begins to embrace their inner metal head. Sometimes it works. Most of the time it doesn’t.

Sworn Enemy is one of the lucky few who seem to have made the transition work for them. Their last recording, As Real As It Gets was a hardcore fueled blast of anger and emotion that was tinged with metal bits here and there. Their latest release, Beginning of the End is an almost complete reversal of rolls for the two musical styles — with the band playing hardcore tinged metal. I really enjoyed the last album. It had plenty of energy and power behind it that I wasn’t sure would translate to the evolving sound of the band. To say the least, I was nervous about spending some money on the new CD.

With the band’s strong hardcore roots, the shift in their overall sound makes for an interesting result. While the new music isn’t revolutionary in terms of uniqueness, it does hold it’s own, retaining that aggression and energy without being lost in a sea of metalcore. Popping this CD in provided for some inspired moments and well as paying homage to the likes of All Out War and Slayer.

Forgotten What better way to introduce your new sound than with a powerfully aggressive and fast blast on the opening track. Sal Lococo starts the album off with a hell of a scream that quickly leads into a fury of blast beats and speed. Lococo’s delivery is just about the same as the last release — hardcore shouts for the most part. He has integrated some great lengthier screams that really add to the listening experience. “Forgotten” gets the head nodding and the blood pumping with ease. Musically, there is plenty of hardcore mosh mixed with a few short metal based solos.

Scared of the Unknown The second track starts off slow with some great riffage. The song quickly speeds up to a pounding, rolling wall of sound. One of the complaints about their previous album was the lack of polish. I can safely say that with this release every aspect of the music is real tight.

Beginning of the End The band keeps the energy in the stratosphere as they open up the third track on the album. This one sounds like the older material with a quicker pace. Lococo exercises his vocal cords with a few tortured screams on this one as well. This one ends with a great mosh, vocal combination.

Save Your Breath “Save Your Breath” is the longest track on the album coming in at just over four minutes in length. Slayer-like reverb starts this one off and quickly transitions to a quick paced, riff fueled assault. You’ll find the heavies breakdown on the album about a minute and a half into the track. We also hear for the first time the deeper backing vocals that are a bit more prominent on this release than the last. With As Real As It Gets, any backing vocals were more in the form of gang shouts. Now they are used in conjunction with Lococo’s main delivery, creating some much needed depth that the last release lacked.

Absorb the Lies There is no lack of energy or aggression in this CD. The Sworn Enemy boys keep up the pace on the fifth track with ease. Layered guitar trade-offs and a great beat keep the momentum shoving you toward the end. Plenty of gang shouts in this one.

All I Have A couple of great riffs power this track. It starts off a bit slower in pace than the previous tracks, but integrates some more of the deeper backing growls well. The beat shifts in speed throughout the song leaving the listener a bit dizzy — this is a good thing.

We Hate This is by far the cheesiest track on the album. Musically, it’s packed full of moshy hardcore goodness. Lyrically, it’s just plain goofy. I think the concept may have been sound at one point, but the end product just doesn’t work for me. I know where they were going with the “Your music sucks” content, but it comes off silly. Moving along.

No Second Chances Thankfully, the band follows up the last track with “No Second Chances” that harkens back to some of their older material. Full mosh and metal meet at a point of fury.

After the Fall The deeper vocal delivery of the guys in back really add to this track. I would like to see more of this layered dual vocal attack in future releases. There is some potential for a more unique sound.

Here Today The band keeps up the great riffs and beat with “Here Today.” There us a bit of the spoken delivery that we first heard on As Real As It Gets. The track ends with a killer explosion of screams and guitar.

Weight of the World Group vocals start the final track off. More of the band’s new driving sound finish this release off with a resounding right hook to the temple. The real track is only about two and a half minutes in length, but it’s a good, powerful blast. There is just about 11 minutes of dead space before the outtake/hidden track starts up. It sounds like the band goofing around. It’s alright, but if you like listening to an album a couple times through on repeat, the dead space is a momentum killer in that regard.

Besides the one weak point on this album, “We Hate,” fans of the band should be able to really get into the band’s fuller use of metal in their music. There is still plenty of old school hardcore breakdowns and mosh. Lococo’s delivery is mostly unchanged, with the exception of the longer duration screams. He doesn’t attempt to do any crooning (thank god) that a few hardcore front men tend to do when adding more metal to their base sound. Overall, the band is much improved from their previous release both in their musicianship and song writing.

Favorite Tracks:
Forgotten
Save Your Breath
No Second Chances

Additional Notes:
The final track has a hidden song about 11 minutes into it. It’s an outtake by the band and crew having fun.