It's been eighteen months since we were gifted with the debut album of Exeter-based melodic hardcore outfit Napoleon. I don't think that for a band who had such a relatively small presence, an album had been more talked about. There was a lot of people waiting to see how the debut release would be brought to them but on 27th May we got it.
Napoleon have long been known for their more 'posi' view on melodic hardcore, steering away from the more sombre and morose sounds that have come from the genre, with a lot of those bands taking their influence from the darker bands that preceded them. However Napoleon have a distinctly different sound.
I used to joke with myself that it was like hardcore music for video game characters but on this album you have to be pretty sheltered away not to hear the resonance of 90's Nintendo games in the tone of the lead guitar. It's evident in particular on the track Maps which come could be been pulled straight from any retro platform game. Now I don't for a second want you to think I mean this in a bad way. The ability to draw from these sort of influences and use them in your music writing shows a great amount of intelligence. Whether it's intentional or not I don't know, but it works, really works!! And to pull this off, all the whilst maintaining the essence of a hardcore album is nothing short of genius.
Structurally I think its nice, the intro/outro pairing that is Dystopia/Utopia I think is clever and integrating the older tracks Brought Here To Suffer and Of Jams, Smokes & Promises again shows great skill to work them seamlessly into a full length album.
Also as this the first release since the joining of Wesley Thompson after he left Climates, I have to say how impressed I am by his development. I very much enjoyed his lyrical writing and vocal tones whilst with Climates he has come a long way since then, his tonal control becoming stronger and the raw tone of his harsh vocal now belting real power out.
How does the posi-melodic blend of rainbows and hardcore punk really work??
Nintendo themed hardcore gets: 7/10
Top picks: Different Skin, Brought Here To Suffer, Afterlife
Newborn Mind was released May 27th 2016 via Basick Records.
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