Band:	BornBroken
Album:	The Healing Powers Of Hate
Style:	Metalcore
Release date:	June 04, 2013
A review by:	Boxcar Willy

01. Can't Quiet The Riot
02. Old News
03. Anger of The Day
04. I Will Rise
05. Control
06. It Has Begun
07. Birth of The Broken
08. Bleed The Sky
09. Reborn From The Ashes
10. The Healing Powers of Hate

I know I've probably said this before, but hardcore is an extremely finicky genre. There are lots of good bands, and even more terrible ones, but bands like BornBroken are by far one of the hardest to review.

BornBroken hail from Montreal, which is turning into quite the metal heaven, with the Québec tech death scene, and the Metal Noir Quebecois and not to mention (the now departed) Despised Icon (R.I.P). Anyway, BornBroken play a mix of hardcore and thrash with a style that is reminiscent of a less developed Lamb Of God. The guitar work is full of chugs and heaviness combined with melodic leads and hooks. This is where the hard part comes in. Many of the hooks and riffs are excellent, they absolutely destroy my speakers, and the bedroom mosh commences. However, an equal amount of the guitar work is fairly simple, and downright boring. Some of the riffs drag on for far too long, and are way too simplistic for their own good. The mix of good and bad riffs is interesting because some of the songs waaaaay outshine the others.

The drum work is solid, nothing to write home about but it gets the job done, and the fills are the classic double bass rolls and 8th note snare rim shots. Cool stuff all in all. They are mixed well, however I find the bass drum to be a little click-y, which doesn't really hinder the performance, it's probably more of a personal preference. Vocally, the album is a hit. The vocals are harsh quick screams, in typical hardcore fashion. Yes, they are simple, but in all seriousness, people don't listen to hardcore for the technicality; especially vocal-wise.

Another little nitpick is the horrid use of samples and spoken word, most are poorly placed, and generally trying too hard to be brutal, or whatever; they just don't work like they were intended.

Overall, this is a weird album; when it's good, it's really, really good. When it's bad, it's, really, really bad.