Review Of The February Solution Demo 2008

2001 saw the beginning of The February Solution. After these 5 friends met up at college, in Glasgow, they created a band, thriving with enthusiasm, over-flowing with talent and producing a fusion of hardcore and metal, with a melodic twist on every turn, being influenced throughout each song by bands such as Between The Buried And Me, Norma Jean and Mogwai. Having supported bands like Hopesfall, Aconite Thrill and All Shall Perish, to name a few, completing a UK tour sponsored by UK Metal Underground in May 2006 and even being selected to play the Bloodbath Festival in Nottingham, alongside bands like Shaped By Fate and Devil Sold His Soul, in February 2007, this band really prove how far they've come, and how hard they've worked to get there, by the quality and passion in their songs.
This 4 track demo provides us with 20 minutes of melodic brutality and intensity strong enough to break down the four walls surrounding you. Its brimming with refined and harmonised vocals, soaring guitar sensations, smooth yet severe bass lines and a powerful double bass beat that accompanies the entire formation.
Autopilot On, the first track on the CD, builds up over the first minute or so, deceiving you in what direction its going to take, before exploding into an array of hefty guitar riffs and a brutal vocal décor. It takes a steady, yet surprising route throughout the entirety of the song, keeping up the deceit in order to keep you on your toes. Breaking down into a surprisingly intertwinement of an old school guitar solo paired by the tender vocals that welcomes back the menacing severity, your already left completely astounded.
No Escape follows, commencing with a surge of atmospheric congestion, combining the rush of immensity with the blasting drum beats thrown at your face. Joined with what I can only describe as psychedelic guitar sweeps that are carried out over the sometimes evil vocals, this track at points creates such an eerie atmosphere it almost as if it were the backing track to a villains life. The double bass blast through like a caged lion, until the tempo decreases and the track is slowed down to a beautiful melody. Paired with the striking vocals that could melt your insides, this is the sun after the storm, but no sooner has the sun begun to shine than the thunder is back, pounding the skies as the music pounds on.
Third track, Illuminati, takes your breath away the instant it begins with the guitars screeching their way into your ear drums, and the bass pulsing in time with your heartbeat. After a 30 second burst of this anger, the harmony cuts in with a voice supporting it that spills emotion you wouldn't expect to feel so suddenly. The anger kicks back in, leaving you with the sensation that you just want him to scream in your face to vent your anger aswell as his. The heavy-soft routine is suspended through the song, fooling you each time you think you've cracked which decibel is coming next, and hitting you with a stronger force than before. The end of the song really hits you though. It's the most compelling throughout the entire CD, where the vocals cry out at you in a poignant declaration of all the wrath the lyrics describe.
Last but not least on the CD, Weapons starts much as Illuminati did, hurling the vocals at you, while pairing the bass beats with the bass line for an insufferably hardcore thrashing. They've done the cliché here, and left the best song until last, but it was worth the wait as it takes you on a journey of a thousand emotions, while being accompanied by thrashy through delicate harmonising. The vocal duet emphasises the message the lyrics are screaming to get through to you, while the sweeping guitars revolutionize your thoughts from one extreme to the next. The finale is a masterpiece of beauty and harmony as the last distortion fades to a gradual end, your left feeling like you've been flung around in every direction and sensation, and left crying out for more.