Debut EP for French metalcore band Inner Light from Rouen.
The French band offers interesting modern metalcore with a big hardcore influence and some very notable metal outbursts. Listening to the five tracks of the debut, it is immediately apparent that the four musicians and vocalist Marine are of a higher calibre than the average thanks to their different way of doing metalcore.
Their influences are quite classic and look at both the classicism of the genre and the more modern stuff, but the subsequent development is very original and all their own. The songs are of medium length, and allow the band to create remarkable sound frameworks with many twists and turns. Inner Light are not a very fast band, they prefer to do things right by building important melodies that enrich their metalcore and make it very melodic but also deeper and never banal. There is also a lot of hardcore metal in their songs, which is somewhat the substratum of their work, the base on which they build their sound.
Of course, the meta also plays a very important role, and there are also moments that would fit well into some melodic death metal records. Much is made of Marine’s voice, which is chiselled perfectly for this genre and for this band, which is a collection of musicians who are very comfortable playing together and their music is their daily battle. The lyrics speak in a figurative way and not about the monsters and fears that we have to face every day, trying to fight as best we can.
Metalcore is a genre that lends itself very much to being a borderline where one can move more freely than other genres and subgenres, and Inner Light make this assumption their own, being very free and varied.
The excesses typical of some interpretations of metalcore are completely absent, while there is a lot of substance, a lot of melody and a lot of desire to make music in a clear and limpid manner. As a debut it is very positive, to be listened to and enjoyed as an antidote to defeats, and it is proof of how a group of friends in a relatively short time since their formation can produce a well-composed and well-played record, all without being professionals, and this is a very important message.
The ep is available on CD, and digitally as a free download through their bandcamp.
