Apoch's Metal Review - A Perfect Murder: Unbroken CD Review

Discography	Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed.
Full-Length(s):	Cease to Suffer (2003) • Unbroken (2004) • Strength Through Vengeance (2005) • War of Aggression (2007)
EP(s):	Blood Covered Worlds (2002) • Rehearsal (2005)

Review

A Perfect Murder's full length release Unbroken was a rather big album that dropped in the hardcore scene. But the question is why? Was there really anything big about the album, or anything even really worth noting about it aside the fact that some songs seemed to just be enveloped by breakdowns? With some more metalcore-esque songs, the album seems as though it was more driven by hype then by anything really lasting.

To put it bluntly, much of this album is extremely generic. "Jaded" starts off pretty solid, with furious riffs and pounding drums, a decent breakdown, and then the music just changes to traditional two-step before entering yet another breakdown that continues until the end of the song. "Possessed" is a pretty good track though, clearly being more of a metalcore track then anything with some melodic riffs in the background of the chorus, a nice solo, and an expected breakdown to close things out with. But, it's about the time you reach "Time Bomb" that the album really just becomes bland, as this song is a pretty weak slow paced hardcore song chock full of slow paced hardcore cliche's.

After "Slave To The Clock", the album pretty much just starts to sound about the same. While the song structures may be different, that track sounds like "Possessed", "Unbroken" has a "Time Bomb" feel, and "No Truce" sounds like "Jaded". There isn't anything that different with the music until "Bouc Emissaire", which is a rather solid hardcore song and stands out amongst pretty much everything on the album. Even the bland screaming vocals on this release become tiring, except for that track, mostly because of the distorted spoken segment about three fourths through the song. Either way, this, and the other closing tracks, are really the only impressive songs on the release, sounding a bit different from the others, having a little more complexity, and just all around sounding tighter and less like filler.

The last five tracks (this includes the untitled final track), as well as "Speak Without Faith" are really the only reasons to check this release out. Sadly, Unbroken is a rather bland, stereotypical hardcore album that shows a little promise. While it wouldn't be so bad that this release lacks any real originallity on much of the material in the album, it would have been beneficial for the band to sit down and really work on making this album a solid effort. Instead, Unbroken is an album that fans of hardcore may listen to a few times just to try to get their money's worth.

Physical review copy of this release provided by:
Personal funds.

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