Band : Sharp End First

Album title : Rule The Day (+ Album sampler)

Label : Glasstone

Distributor : Progressive Publicity

Release date : 21/04/2008

Release : CD

Originally formed in London in Autumn 2004, it would take Modern Melodic Metalcore act SEF several member changes and a move to Bath, before they got themselves a steady line-up in December 2005. After so many setbacks and personal problems, it seemed almost as if the band's 3-track demo-EP Songs For The Betrayed (recorded as a quartet comprising singer Flit, guitarists Jay & Simon, and   drummer Jacko...bassist Rob re-joining later to make a quintet complete) would never see the light of day.

To their complete surprise, because they had recordinged the demo purely for promotional purposes, Bath based label Glasstone offered to give the EP a nationwide distribution. Since the release, songs off the EP have been given worldwide airing on a variety of (smaller) radio stations, and even got extensive play on TotalRock Radio (for about 8 weeks). Besides that, the band has been fortunate enough to share the stages/ tour with such as Devil Sold His Soul, Exit Ten, Hundred Reasons, Shaped By Fate, Sikth, Skindred, Textures, and Twin Zero to name but a few...and sold quite a bit of copies of their EP in Europe and the US as well!

The 11 tracks on the new album were recorded in the UK, and completed and mastered in Denmark by Tue Madsen (see also Halford, Heaven Shall Burn, Himsa, Soilwork, and many, many others). Admittingly, the band's cooperation with the renowned producer is well befitting their music, which is decribed by the label as "...taking their influences from the likes of Devin Townsend, Deftones, Faith No More and Iron Maiden, all tracks are executed with a ferociously brutal UK Metal sound whilst still maintaining stabilizing overtones...". Of course, there's plenty of moments where the band retains the violence for a calmer passage, thus only making emphasis on the more brutal but always deliciously melodic parts. And even during the savagely Epic parts, there's plenty of moments when the raging vocals are exchanged for cleaner ones (cleaner, but therefore not Emo-like).

A 2-track sampler with bonus video for the track "Blinded By Belief" was already sent out some time ago (somewhat sooner in the UK), meaning UK press has already taken the opportunity to react. A selection of press excerpts (both new and old)? "An EP that seethes and swaggers with attitude and technical proficiency. What results is a splurge of sweat, energy and torn vocal cords with enough added double-kick drum bursts to make any Machine Head fan crack a smile. You can hear the rampaging ambirion spilling out the speakers..." (Kerrang!); "...Fusing crushing breakdowns with soaring melody, here is another young UK band lighting some serious fires. Fand of Diecast and Maroon are going to lap up "Warchie" – a perfect example of snaring your influences and evolving into something truly monstrous..." (Terrorizer about the debut EP); "...taking the most savage Deftones sounds, applying them to the fist clenched power of Lamb Of God and giving it all a devastating performance, it's like lighting a match in a fireworks factory – kiss goodbye to your eyebrows..." (Subba Cultcha); "...this EP makes enough noise to be heard across the Kingdom, with power and passion the EP opens with "Warchie" , a spicky bellow number with full pelt Grind Metal guitar with a tiny mix of melody and bloody minded noise. The second track leads off with a melodic intro before giving the hair dryer treatment to one and all. The last track "The Remote Chance Of Survival" is 19 minutes long and has five minutes of eerie noise in the middle but ends with a roaring in your face..." (Rock 3 Radio about the debut EP); "...Imagine if Pissing Razors and Mortal Treason had a bastard child, and that's getting close to Sharp End First . They manage to have a massive and almost epic sound at times and some brutal breakdowns. All in all, here is good Metal!..." (punknews.co.uk); "... "Dividing Infinity" is an introspective masterpiece, "Blinded By Belief" is possibly even better...7.5 out of 10..." (Terrorizer about the current sampler EP). There's more, but we'll leave it at that!

In short, this is one album you do not want to miss out on if you're into the whole Melodic Brutal Metal thing! Check out this monster masterpiece by surfing to myspace.com/sharpendfirst, where you'll find mp3-files for 4 songs off the album, plus a home video for one of 'em ( "Dividing Infinity" ) in the blogs. Regretfully, the video to "Blinded By Belief" is already (?) taken back! Running up to the album release, a single featuring the track "Love Less Regret" will be issued, proceeds of which are to go integrally to myeloma.org.uk , an organisation doing research in the field of treatments and cures for myeloma cancer. In fact, the band will also be doin' a benefit show on May 3 rd (for more info see the band's Myspace page). Playing several UK shows during April, the band will be heading out to the continent for a full European tour (humoristically announced as "Czech Tour") come September. We can only hope the album makes enough waves for the band to see themselves invited to play in our country as well (at this moment, no dates of the Eurotour have actually been confirmed).

Anyways, meanwhile we hàve the album to deal with...and it's définitely a must-have kinda thing for you Modern Metalcore freaks out there. Personally, I cannot but be amazed by both the songs themselves, as the prolific delivery by these truly young musicians. For all those reasons, Rule The Day ends up in that "Best Albums Of 2008"-list of mine!

98/100

Tony.