Empathy are from the famous H8000 area, Belgium and of course they play straight up metalcore. The band features famous members, on guitar Matthias Halsberghe (ex- Liar) and on drums the current Congress vocalist Tim Jult and I like his drum work much more than his vocal abilities! And should I tell you what this Empathy record rocks much more than Congress' newest effort, Empathy managed to combine straight thrash, melodic death, chugga chugga breakdowns and Clevo styled hardcore! Just imagine Integrity would have a metal guitar player and you got a small idea how Empathy would sound like! At all Empathy's sound has much more sophisticated song-structures and they bring a lot alternation to their songs and offer lots of tempo-changes, breaks and stop-and-go parts. But the album isn't bumpy in any way, it goes straight forward and I never miss the melody but I guess you have to like such a "chaotic" style of music. The first track "Silent Scream" is pretty metallic while the follower "My Way" starts off with tough tunes in the vein of Hatebreed but they soon play a break with playfully guitars and the vocals range from rough shouts/screams to spoken word pieces. Empathy often play mid-tempo moshing hardcore but refine this with melodic guitar leads and speed up metal parts. At "No More" they are also supported by the female vocalist Sarah Algoet, her voice brings some gothic feeling to these short passages whereat the rest of the song is nothing more and nothing less than destroying metalcore! The last track ? the instrumental - "Barbecues & Ballgames" which is more than seven minutes long features keyboards and a long-termed nature sound part at the end... Good one!
marcel (silencestagnation.de)

Tracklist:

1. Silent Scream
2. My Way
3. Lost Hope
4. Song For A Snowflake
5. Maja (Instrumental)
6. Touch Of Life
7. Drunk Man / Bad Man
8. No More
9. Barbecues & Ballgames (Instrumental)