The Vision Ablaze
Embers

Embers is the second album for the band The Vision Ablaze that was founded in 2010, the first one was released in 2015. They have also two EPs in the discography, so not the most active albums releasers out there. That could mean that they are working carefully and methodically with their album, or they are lazy. The cover kind of points towards the first, but it looks a tad overworked and dull. Still, covers are one thing but what the Danes are offering in terms of music is the important thing, and they do offer more aggression, but still epic choruses – it is scorching according to singer Tim.

Metalcore is how I think most would describe the music of The Vision Ablaze, dynamic, heavy, melodic, catchy, something like that. You can namedrop plenty of bands if you like as they don’t really break from the format here. The vocals are growly, hardcore screamy, and catchy clean with a singer that sounds like they usually do in the genre. I also notice that they aren’t exactly giving us much variation over the 47 minutes the album plays, I would describe it as a bit on the long side. And it isn’t exactly original either, it feels like we have heard it before, it is not an album that gives a sense of novelty.

I find this album to be a good listen, the catchy songs and melodies makes it a nice album to play through. But it isn’t exactly a remarkable album, or a great one. Everything feels so familiar, not like I want it when listening to a band I haven’t heard before, a new album should have an air of novelty and feel fresh – this doesn’t. They master their craft well, and make good songs, but there is something amiss – and it is not just that they should have shortened the album some minutes. They don’t really strike me as the band with a vision ablaze, it is just another one of those nice and well-articulated inoffensive modern bands that doesn’t really do much else but copy what other have done before them, and if you do that well it is hard to completely fail.

I think that the creative vision is missing from Embers and perhaps it has all burned out well before they got to the scene of recording. I would have wanted something fiery, something angry, something dastardly, something daring, and something fresh, but what I got was just another one of those inoffensive modern family friendly metalcore artists who are getting quite numerous these days. And when I jot down the last few words, I wonder what happened with the emotional songs that will tear at my heartstring that I read about in the press material – I don’t hear them anywhere on this album. But still, you cannot really go wrong with catchy inoffensive metalcore, can you?

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