Album Review: Conspire – The Scenic Route

Conspire have unleashed their debut album, The Scenic Route, it was released in mid November via InVogue Records, and it’s a notably dark and stormy journey into melodic post hardcore. The Floridian quintet have marked their first entry into the overcrowded post hardcore genre with an impressive and consistent ten track debut, to add muscle to their initial recording the album also features guest appearances from Silent Planet‘s Garrett Russell and Rocky Armelino from This Or The Apocalypse.

The opening track, 1971, features a disquieting melodic quality before the military drumbeat kicks in which signifies the song building up to the chorus, all the way through this track ebbs and flows between unsettling melodic sections with spoken vocals, and growled sections where everything just kicks in. The Secenic Route features a dark and down tuned vibe that moves away from the typical elements that have featured on many of the post hardcore albums I’ve heard this year. Conspire‘s debut release flows nicely, and whilst it displays a consistent quality across it’s ten tracks, it manages to avoid falling into the trap of becoming repetitive. This is nowhere more in evidence than on By The Sword, and the final track Enola. These two tracks move away from the troubled nature of the abum by introducing a thoughtful and haunting instrumental element to this release. Unlike many albums I’ve encountered that include an instrumental interlude to break things up, these two numbers fit in with the feel of the album and don’t sound like an incongruous afterthought.

The Scenic Route is a dark and claustrophobic album, but this isn’t just another noisy post hardcore release that follows the blueprint of alternating loud and quiet sections, there’s a lot more to The Scenic Route than that. This an album that varies the intensity and style and proves that they aren’t just another angry voice in the crowd, if you’re tastes lie to the darker and more emotive side of the genre then this is an album you’ll want to investigate.

The Scenic Route can be purchased here