INCURA

With a career defined, thus far, by a series of EP releases during the past decade, here we have Incura's debut album on Inside Out. And I had high hopes for the Canadians' first full-length effort, based solely on a video track that materialised a year ago, 'Who You Are' - a theatrically-charged rock/metal hybrid with a pronounced melodramatic momentum, largely courtesy of frontman Kyle Gruninger's wonderfully over-the-top vocal performance. However, the melodrama of that one song doesn't actualise in as much of a spectacular fashion throughout the album as I'd hoped or expected. Sure, there are other moments where Incura's theatrical sonics break through songs' rock/metal foundations (such as on 'Get the Gun', 'Decide' and 'The Greatest Con'), but there's too much of a plodding and bland nature underpinning many of the other tracks. There's something about the album, as a whole, that just lacks that extra panache. This isn't, by any means a bad, or even average album; rather, the melodramatic flair Incura inject their songwriting with excels on far too few occasions. On the positive side, instrumentally, the interplay between guitars, bass, drums and piano is quite wonderful. If they can just refine their compositional skills that little further, or at least with a greater degree of consistency, they'll then be worthy of more attention. For now, though, it seems the transition from an EP's worth of material to a full album has not been an entirely successful one. A shame, because there's genuine promise and potential within this band.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Inside Out

Album

INCURA

Review by Mark Holmes

RUNNING TIME:

43:45

RELEASE DATE:

24th Feb 2014

TRACK LISTING

1) Get the Gun
2) I Breathe This
3) I'm Here Waiting
4) Who You Are
5) Turning Blue
6) Decide
7) Here to Blame
8) The Greatest Con
9) I'd Give Anything
10) Sweat Runs Cold

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

Canada

"...the melodramatic flair Incura inject their songwriting with excels on far too few occasions."