Band:	Versus The Mirror
Album:	Home
Style:	Hard rock, Alternative rock
Release date:	2006
A review by:	jupitreas

01. Birthed By Architecture
02. Smoke It To The Ropes
03. Barracude Capital Of The World
04. Great White Zombie
05. Life As A Criminal
06. The Sound Asleep
07. Out Of Context
08. Let's Get Alone
09. Boy Gets What He Wants
10. Fear Will Keep Them In Line
11. Home
12. (I Am) The Master Of Gravity

Although Versus The Mirror are a metalcore band, their music is quite significantly different than what most of us imagine when this oversaturated style of music is mentioned. Home might be an album in an oft-maligned genre; however, it contains songs that are sincere and unique and is thus capable of rising far above the crowd of clones.

What will immediately grab your attention when you put this music on is how somber? no - downright depressive it is. It's been a while since I heard a band so resigned, grim and capable of infecting me with this vibe so successfully. This is because Versus The Mirror favor a visceral and expressive approach to their music. There is not a single trace of 'emo' clean vocals here, neither are there any energetic melodeath-inspired guitar leads. Instead, there is a powerful wall of sound that draws us in with its subtleties rather than by obvious and ostentatiously exhibited gimmicks. I think comparisons to Neurosis or Converge would actually be more suitable here than to any of the popular metalcore bands. Versus The Mirror also very wisely chose not to utilize the latest recording technologies and instead produced Home using analogue means. The resulting sound lets the band's music breathe and easily achieve the required extremity of expression required to convey the dark emotions that David Siebold screams about.

Home is a very sincere, personal and human release from a genre that we usually associate with bombast and plasticity. Highly recommended.