UK band OUTRIGHT RESISTANCE was formed back in 2011, and have been an active unit in the metal scene ever since with three EPs to their name and closing in fast on 150 live performances by the end of 2016. “Me vs I” is their fourth EP, and is set to be released at the end of July in 2016.

This production opens with a dark dramatization that probably won’t be to everyone’s taste, basically giving us a possible glimpse into the mind of a schizophrenic. A dark and disturbing mood piece, if you manage to live yourself into it, realized in a realistic rather than high quality acting manner. Or to put it that way: A voice actor would have made this creation rather more chilling, but this realization of the theme is probably much closer to what the reality of such cases actually are.

The rest of this EP stays put in dark and grim places, but with the thespian tendencies now replaced by good, old fashioned metal. As something of an old fart in this game, the opening cuts here reminded me ever so slightly of bands like Nuclear Assault: Metal bands drawing in tendencies from both hardcore and thrash metal to unite the twain into one. Outright Resistance have their own take on this however, but some of the key tendencies can at least be traced back to this general approach general.

The main hardcore elements used throughout are hard, harsh vocals, in this case somewhere in the twilight zone beneath the aggressive hardcore shouts and the more guttural growl style vocal approach. Harsh and rough vocals with a harder edge, fairly laced with aggression. Well made and compelling riff patterns accompany the vocals, at times slowing down the pace to a more strict heavy metal oriented sound, complete with impact riffs, at other times with more of an intense subtly moving riff pattern at play with more of a thrash metal foundation. A key aspect of the sound the band present at this time is a dark toned, rich and generally majestic guitar sound, which for some reason gives me associations to some of the aesthetics of doom metal. Guitar solo runs are few and far between, and when they occur they are functional more than anything else, but the band does use melodic overlays and brief guitar solo fragments to good effect throughout, especially the former forms an effective contrast to the otherwise dark, grim and oppressive landscapes explored. Effective drum patterns is another asset of this band, perhaps more functional than amazing in scope but most certainly fitting the scope, tone and mood of the compositions and the form of music explored very well indeed.

If you have a taste for dark, oppressive and at least at times fairly aggressive metal, of the kind that mainly draw in impulses from thrash metal, heavy metal and hardcore into a majestic, almost Wagnerian concoction, this young Stevenage-based band will probably be worth getting familiar with once this EP is commercially available.

My rating: 80/100

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Links:

https://outrightresistance.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/OutrightResistanceBand/