Reviews: Split with My Shining One and Son Of The Mourning

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Flex Your Head (http://www.flexyourhead.net)

A transatlantic meeting of sorts comes via Engineer Records, as New Jersey's My Shining One and England's Son Of The Mourning team up. First up are the impressively pedigreed My Shining One (featuring ex-members of Nora, Ensign, For the Love Of), whose hardcore meets indie rock blend goes down as smooth as Thursday meeting Thrice. Next comes a heavier, more frenetic Son Of The Mourning, complete with dissonant chords, a discernibly murkier feel, and a liking for Isis heard on the collection's closer, "Memento." A good array of what hardcore bands sound like (or should sound like) today can be found here.

The Journal Review (http://HTTP://www.journalreview.com)

Engineer Records has engineered one of the better split EPs of the year, bridging older and newer schools of metal.

New Brunswick, N.J.'s My Shining One operate in the former school of thought. Featuring former members of Nora, Ensign, et al., My Shining One utilize an abundance of melody to appease older fans, but are modernly heavy enough for younger listeners to latch onto.

Guitarists Chris Byrnes and John Stanley crank out fat-necked and cocky riffs through three songs, the rhythm section of bassist Andy Koniecko and drummer Crumbs provides a thumping foundation and Rob O'Neil articulates relatively clean vocals with a demonic edge.

They give their sound a more contemporary twist on third track "The Last Lawn in Somerville," as speed and bass-drum breakdowns incite Byrnes and Stanley to descend their instruments through corkscrew turns.

Manchester, England's Son of the Mourning, by contrast, come from the new class of sound and style where chaos and inconstancy are your friends. Their three contributions are loaded with dizzying tempo shifts played as close to reckless without losing control as possible.

There's a fair amount of staccato fury on "The Reimus Code," but also plenty of chilly noodling that keeps you on your heels, knowing something's going to hit the fan. The calm, piccolo opening to "Memento" similarly dwells more on atmosphere than how fast they can play. This lead-in to the song's slower body doesn't mask the catastrophic doom the band achieve, however.

Mostly hidden within Son of the Mourning's ramshackle output are the decidedly non-gruesome and/or morbid lyrics almost customary in the genre. They encourage a lovesick someone to move on in "Memento." At the end of "The Reimus Code," they emphasize, "Remember what you have got / And don't regret what you have lost / There isn't time to live the past / So live each day as if it's your last."

This split EP, if anything, is a swift reminder of metal's roots and where it's now going. Wonder what's next?

theHVScene (http://www.theHVscene.com)

The first half of the EP belongs to New Jersey's My Shining one. Consisting of former members of Nora, For The Love Of, and Ensign, My Shining one contribute three melodic metalcore / rock anthems. I can't help but compare the songs to earlier Thrice, but the vocals aren't nearly as powerful, and at times seem somewhat forced. The foursome are definitlely attempting to evolve melody from their hardcore roots and do it reasonably well; while still adding the proverbial breakdown to keep it real to their tri-state roots.

I give their half of the split 7/10 (...better vocals, less hetfield / lemmy straining, would have raised their score, being that the rest of the music is tight.)

The second half of the EP is definitely less intriguing than the first. Belonging to Manchester, UK's Son of the Mourning, the three tracks can be compared musically to converge, and fear before the march of flames at times. I hear it as a bunch of bitching screams over some fairly heavy spazzcore. The best part of their half of the split are definitely the breakdowns and jazz-style bridges.

SceneItAll (http://sceneitall.net/)

It was the fine music critic Frankenstein's Monster that once remarked, "Split GOOD!" You know, upon analyzing that statement, he has a point. Two bands, one album, one price. There's just something so pleasing about getting two things for the price of one. Heck, I believe that polygamy was built on that very foundation. But what separates your average run of the mill split from a really good one? Some would say good music and they'd be right, but that's only half the tale. A good split finds common ground between the two bands in question. Whether it is sound, members, geography, or topic, there should be a certain cohesion. My Shining One and Son of the Mourning join forces here to give you a blast from the past, metalcore before the days of the big extreme music blow up.

Let's do a little word association. Nora? Under photographed drummer. For the Love of? Sledgehammer plus anvil equals one great show opener. Ensign? Severely overlooked. All three together? My Shining One. With that lineage, you'd expect this band from the cradle of hardcore creativity (Jersey) to be heavy on the chugga chugga, anthemic gang shouts, and the rest of the hardcore thrills and frills, but surprisingly, they play thrash with a hardcore and rock twist. Imagine channeling the melodic hardcore of a band like Ignite through an outfit like Random Acts of Violence or likeminded thrash. So, when you get down to it, it's pretty much metalcore, right? Well, it depends how liberal your definition is. Sure, the band would fit in with Killswitch Engage since they go the more emotional route and they have the guitar lines of a band like Age of Ruin but the growling and predictable breakdowns are thankfully kept to a minimum. Saccharin and Small Hours have a sound that's reminiscent of All that Remains with catchy lead work that never becomes too active and a build that leads towards more melodic emotional sections. Saccharin in particular works well with the formula they set out for themselves and its great bridge transitions into a hooky ending that adds in light screams. The Last Lawn in Somerville deviates only slightly from the rest of the tracks since it sits a tad more on the aggressive end of the spectrum and even has time to throw in a 7 Angels 7 Plagues flourish in its intro.

My Shining One's downfall are the vocals which will be kicked into the Brother's Keeper/Cast Iron Hike love them or hate them category. In the beginning, I outright hated them since they come off sounding awkward, he struggles to hit some of the notes, but as time rolls on with repeated listens, they have a certain charm to them and gives the band an endearing quality that more, shall we say, professional vocals would've eschewed. Still, they have a classic thrash lean which absolutely detest but at least its not more generic growling and they come out on top in that respect.

UK's Son of the Mourning are one of those bands that have a press sheet that lists off possible influences but it basically all comes back to one common hardcore missing link, Converge. You know, initially I was going to write about how they picked a more interesting period of Converge than most (When Forever Comes Crashing/Poacher Diaries mainly) but then in pops an unexpected songwriting shift. Suddenly the band was in crawling progressive stoner territory with more deliberate pacing and those eerily beautiful clean guitar lines washing up on the shore of distorted destruction.

August 29th,1997 is the best cut of their more chaos influenced material with a great catchy guitar melody on the verse before the band kicks into a closing section that is pure 10.21 era Skycamefalling. Their side closes out with the dynamic and moody Memento. Buried clean vocals are washed over by a gently plucked guitar before it kicks into a repeating crusher and howled vocals. Again, the song drops back into the quiet section that has been made tense by its surroundings and comes off sounding surprisingly Tool like, especially the bass line. An interesting turn of events and while nods to both Converge and Skycamefalling are ever present in their young songwriting, they do both justice instead of sloppily stringing their favorite riffs from each together.

As far as splits go, this isn't a bad investment since you're getting two young bands that show some promise and are at a point in their career where they may be ready to really deliver a great album. Their ties to the older metalcore guard is noted and thankfully sets them apart from the rest of the field that seems to be content to recycle the same DUN DUN WEEE that's been in the vogue for the past couple of years. Could both bands branch out a bit with their tunes so they don't sound so much like their influences? Of course, but I have a feeling that will come in time. In the meantime, give this a look, it's decent if not good and spotlights a couple of bands that I'm sure will be making an impact in the next couple of years.

PastePunk (http://www.pastepunk.com)

With Engineer Records recently establishing an American base after churning out releases for years from the UK alone, it's only a matter of time before some of their bands draw some serious attention in this country. This split EP features three songs each by MY SHINING ONE and SON OF THE MOURNING, and clocks in with roughly 27 minutes of music. MY SHINING ONE kicks things off with "Saccharin," a song that immediately sets the tone for a heavy journey. Featuring ex-members from FOR THE LOVE OF, NORA, ENSIGN, TRY.FAIL.TRY and EX NUMBER FIVE, this band has plenty of hardcore experience behind them. Combining a strong post-hardcore influence (reminiscent of Trustkill's solely underappreciated SPARK LIGHTS THE FRICTION), with tinges of THRICE (think "Paper Tigers"), and even a little bit of BY A THREAD, this group is very well-rounded and immediately distinct from the crop of talented, but boring metalcore stiffs that can be found amongst every local scene right now. SON OF THE MOURNING are more straight-forward in style than their split counterparts, but their take on dark, technical screamo/hardcore is no less rousing. Strangely enough, these guys have a lot in common with FOR THE LOVE OF, which is a cool back-track to the personnel of MY SHINING ONE. A listen of the group's second tune, "The Reimus Code," elicits comparisons to older CONVERGE, but without the high-pitched tail-caught-in-a-trap vocals. It's nothing you haven't heard before, but it's also hardly a pale imitation. Both bands show plenty of potential with this split release - let's hope it's not the last we hear from them!

The Red Season (http://www.theredseason.com)

Engineer Records is back again with another split but this time with two groups an ocean apart. Boasting members of Nora, Fortheloveof, and Ensign, My Shinning One is a sound different from the likes of all their past projects. Actually, this New Brunswick, NJ group has created a somewhat original sound of their own, giving them an extra edge. Holding up the second half of the split is Manchester, England's screamo outfit Son of the Mourning. Featuring parts equivalent to Isis and Converge, Son of the Morning seems to hold the better stance on this split musically.

Although each member in My Shining One are talented on the instrument they use, it simply comes together in an awkward fashion. The vocals are harsh numerous times throughout this side of the split, but the highly metal influenced guitars make up, at times, for the lacking vocals. Sounding nothing like any of their past efforts, My Shining One is a somewhat metal group but more geared at people into hard-rock. This is simply not my thing so I'm probably somewhat biased on this portion of the album.

To the contrary, Son of the Mourning easily makes up for the awkwardness of My Shining One. Unfortunately, only featuring three tracks from this group, this portion of the split contains excellent, fast paced drumming which is packed with cymbal work. The guitars range from a thrash-like sound to pure hardcore to plain old rock; in turn, showing the diversity which surrounds Son of the Mourning's song writing process. The vocals are crisp and steady throughout these three tracks while maintaining a perfect tempo. Closing the split is the ballad "Memento" which carries on for about two minutes as a slow rock song but soon picks up into the same unique sound which Son of the Mourning carries through their three tracks.

As a rather short split and only featuring three tracks from each band, I find this hard for me to get into, unlike the Catalyst and Calm.Murder split. My Shining One fulfills the hard rock category quite well, but is not my thing; I'd say these three tracks are more for fans of Candiria with a metal influence. For fans of Converge, Isis, and Boysetsfire, Son of the Mourning does a sizeable job in attempt to really make this split a good release. This split could easily be something for you, but sadly enough, it doesn't really catch my interest.

Score: 6 / 10

Jersey Beat (http://www.JerseyBeat.com)

A split CD from two hardcore bands from two different sides of the Atlantic. My Shining One hail from New Brunswick and are further proof that the long standing hardcore tradition of that city did not end when Thursday moved out of the Somerset house. Comprised of ex-members of other NJ bands like Nora and Ensign, MSO combine metal crunch with indie style singing. The lead singer has a gruff voice but can actually hold a note. What a concept! I'm planning to check these guys out next chance I get. Son Of Mourning from Manchester England are a lot more straight ahead metal/thrash. Apparently every band from that city was NOT influenced by The Smiths. My mistake. Still SOM blow most American metal bands out of the water. If you've lost faith in hardcore this split will make you a believer once again. I guar-an-tee.