Band : The Setup
Album title : Torchbearer
Label : GSR Music
Distributor : Cargo Records
Release date : 12/06/2009
Release : CD

This is The Setup’s debut full-length (remember they released 5-track EP Crawl & Reign in mid February of this year, review for which was posted on the 22nd of same month…and if you’re looking for a history on the band’s carreer, that’s where I gladly direct you to) album with new singer Kris Deweerdt. All that can be said is…he delivers!!!

What with the album already released in June (we took a huge drop-back with our editor-in-chief having to concentrate on the festival season – and getting a slight burn-out in return – in his promotion capacity for two labels), they boys have already been able to showcase their songs in live conditions (following a couple of release shows they went on a Summer tour with Forfeit (album on US label Reaper Records). That the band has again gone for a higher level is prooven quite sufficiently by such tracks as “Hostile Eyes”, “Drwon And Sink”, and “Another Heresy”, but the rest of the (12) songs are nothing to pull up your nostrils about either! The band’s somewhat recent setbacks are reflected in the aura of the songs: anger, frustration and hate…but also hope! Or, in the words used in the label’s bio, “…in a world where no one seems to care and many of us feel alone, the torchbearer will rise to show us there is more out there than what we are told…”! Nice message, and even nicer album, which elevates the band to the top of the Belgian Metalcore scene beyond a doubt!

If you haven’t checked out the album yet, or failed to come across the band thus far, and are into Hardcore infused with some Death Metal elements, I strongly recommend you check out the songs the band posted at myspace.com/thesetup (besides 2 tracks off the new full-length, you’ll also find a song off the EP, and one song each off the band’s earlier releases). Pity they didn’t post album closer “Endnote: The Rising” though. With its samples taken from newscasts (the capture of Saddam Hussein and Obama’s “Yes, we can! Oratory among ‘em), that somewhat lengthier (still only 4:12, but already the lengthiest track I’ve known to date) track sets itself apart somewhat in a positive way. If you come across the album in your record store, be sure to check that song out, eh?

Well, top quality deserving top ratings, Torchbearer also gets a nomination into my personal “Best Albums Of  2009”-lists!!!

98/100

Tony.