At Our Heels – Misanthropy And Godlessness

At Our Heels very much nails all the essentials for blackened hardcore punk.  The San Francisco two-piece is abrasive, knows when to back off and when to rev up for some gut wrenching cries.  While not terribly unique amongst others in the genre, their Creator-Destructor debut, Misanthropy And Godlessness, certainly feels adequate to entertain the minds of dark, tortured souls.

Led vocalist Alex Pulisci (credited with recording everything save for drums) keeps his composure while blasting his vocal chords at a shrill level.  He has some baritone hidden within, but certainly not enough to dampen his rawness.  When the EP starts up with “Through Their Teeth” they aim for an escalating sense of looming peril.  Dark, unconventional guitars ring out like perfectly timed cathedral bells, and drums pound as if weighted by heavy burdens and lifted by giants.  But equal parts punk also manifests themselves in tempo and sequencing.  Take the just over a minute “Unholy” for instance.  Ben Murray’s frantic speed drumming invites comparisons to updated takes on 80’s hardcore meets modern iterations like Every Time I Die.

But the band’s biggest strength lies in their knack for chaining tracks together in what feels like a single expression of altered mentalities.  Or put otherwise, like the deceptive line between lies and truth detailed on “Unholy,” tracks blur with and invade their neighbours.  For example, the strand of continuity making up “Unholy,” “Teeth & Bone,” and “Sink With Me” ensures that no track concludes on a conventional note, instead leaving listeners guessing at each run time and track boundary.  Consequently, Misanthropy And Godliness wraps up well before listeners can clue into the fact that they’ve sat through thirteen individual tracks.

As for lyrics, they never really stood out for me in song, but the accompanying lyric book gives for some notable passages.  Generally, At Our Heels mourns for a loss of truth by detaching from and deploring societal, religious, and familial expectations. Composed generally of anger fueled emotive states, they have no problem communicating their emotions, but sometimes encounter an issue establishing a clear motive.  It’s more of a genre flaw than anything else, but still certainly a point for improvement.

There are a couple adventurous moments that pop up as the album winds down though, like in “The Fainting Game” and “Rituals.”  The speed at which the band flies through pedal drawn disharmony mimic’s that of a breakdown, but with an experimental edge. Or as per the slow instrumental riff sequences that lead out “Capture & Consume,” which reverberate against each other into a reduced tempo.

In any case, Misanthropy And Godliness is an attention-keeping piece of hardcore that could probably benefit from a few more unique moments, but that doesn’t suffer because of it.  If you like Panic Records styled hardcore, then At Our Heels’ Creator-Destructor debut is surely worth checking out.