Gacy’s Threads (NI) | ‘Save Your Scars’

Gacy’s threads do quite a good job of getting themselves around. They’ve gigged as far afield as Hungary, and the effort has paid clear dividends in their recorded material. Production here is just a little thin on it, with the high end emphasised all over the place, and no apparent mids to thicken things up across the board. That’s something of a shame as it prevents the full weight of the riffs to come through. That aside though, it’s a strong showing if somewhat rooted in it’s genre.

It’s actually quite easy to distinguish yourself within metalcore - just keep the dissonant chords to the bare minimum, write punchy hooks and you’re more or less there. Gacy’s Threads are at least on the right path. It would have been easy to just thow a thousand kronking chords at the wall and see what sticks, but the band have elected instead to actually focus on moving the songs on melodically.

In fact, there’s almost a nod or two to late period Sepultura in here as well as the assortment of Norma Jeans, Converges and all the other noisecore luminaries. That makes itself apparent when the guitars go into real chug mode, with the whole band seemingly aware that it’s time to lock down and get the job done. ‘Nothing Sacred’ impresses as well with a touch of moody clean guitar that isn’t actually all that common in this kind of setting.

The only thing that really lets the demo down is a feeling of not just 100% tightness across the songs. The bending lead at the start of ‘Hate Them, Hate Us’ sounds plain sloppy, thin, and like it was done through a Zoom 505 fx processor set to ‘Budget’. Elsewhere, as in opener ‘ Savour Your Scars’, it isn’t always apparent where the time signatures following each other are coming from. They don’t always keep a feel of flow. Disconcerting shifts is what noisecore is all about. These kinds of shifts however seem down to timing issues.

It’s decent though, and it’s good solid metal for the Metal Hammer youth. No harm in that. I’d counsel a bit more investment in the production next time though, given what the general standard is like these days. Nice art though.

-Ciaran Tracey ::: 08/09/09