Counting Days is an interesting amalgam of UK hardcore bands TRC, Last Witness, Rough Hands and Heights. Not surprisingly then, “Liberated Sounds” comes out as an intense and frenzied work, where energy and noise levels are at a premium and have “live” written all over the songs.
I wouldn’t describe this album as anarchic, as there’s clearly thought and control in the twelve brutal offerings, but there’s a strong punkish element to it. At first I thought that the contributors were working on top of each other but there are discernible layers, even in this bloodbath of an atmosphere. This, I’m sure, is no small part down to the producer, the renowned Fredrik Nordstrom of At the Gates, Bring Me the Horizon, In Flames, Arch Enemy and Architects fame. In fact for comparative purposes, after listening to this I went off to listen to Architects’s “Hollow Crown” album and I detected similarities. I should add that “Liberated Sounds” is less technical and more direct, which put me off a little in the middle part of the album as everything sounded the same. It’s curious that the introduction of the Heights vocalist and musical influence brings “culture” into it but there’s no doubt in my mind that this Hertfordshire hardcore input has brought added interest.
While thrash replaces overt technicality over most of the album but in particular the first couple of tracks, the intensity and imaginative drum pattern were never going to hold this beast together for me. It was welcome then that “Beaten and Scarred” breaks off into a Heights type statement which would go along the lines of “I’m telling you, I dare you not to join in”. “Beaten and Scarred” is relentless in its punkish assault too, and with the deep guitar and hardcore chorus, it’s fizzing and a great enhancement to the ferocity of which there is no shortage. “Life and Death” shares a similar level of energy, and then “We are the Liberated” is pumped out. I’m not sure what we’re liberated from but it’s clear enough that we’re invited to join in the adrenaline rush and it’s no hardship to do so. For me it went a bit flat after that but then “Sands of Time” steps up on all front. A little bonus is the guest appearance of At The Gates’s Tomas Lindberg on vocals, but the band raise their game impressively on this fiery song with the rumbling guitar and heavy drums. Having been shredded by “Sands of Time”, “Prison of Misery” starts off like a machine gun and maintains the frenzied anger and aggression. With a hint of djentiness, this is cage-rattling, air-punching stuff. The last couple of tracks “Cold Truth” and “Reunion” have a slightly more traditional heavy metal air about them, but they are both still vibrant and packed with attitude.
With the unmistakeable slant of Heights and a healthy dose of UK metalcore, recalling lively nights out, “Liberated Sounds” is made up of different individual sounds and styles, united by brutal energy.
(7/10 Andrew Doherty)
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