Take Heart is a five piece band from Vancouver, British Columbia that strives to bring a fresh blend of melodic hardcore and metalcore to the scene. Despite drawing quite noticeable influences from other melodic hardcore/metalcore bands like Counterparts and Heart In Hand, they have succeeded in their quest in bringing something new to the table. Even though “Foundations” is a relatively short EP that just passes the 14-minute mark, there is a very wide range of styles and song structures throughout the course of it. For the most part, it is melodic. However, there are a few chaotic hardcore moments and there are some decent breakdowns as well. The guitarists, Dij Mannar and Julien Ouimet, do a good job incorporating these different styled riffs and leads which prevents the listener from becoming bored of the same thing over and over again. The drummer, Daniel Sandison, plays a typical, upbeat hardcore style on his kit, but he does display quite a bit of skill at times. The bassist, Mikey Bertuzzi, can barely be heard. The parts I can hear sound like they’re nothing groundbreaking, but who am I to know because the bass is very minimal on this EP. If I were to pick one flaw on this EP, it would be the aforementioned bass “problem”. Colton Harris, vocalist, has some pretty powerful vocals that compliments the instrumental parts very well. He doesn’t display much of a range in his vocals, but he does occasionally drift away from his mids/highs. While I’m not entirely sure who does the clean vocals for Take Heart, I will say that they are a good addition. To whoever belts out the cleans, kudos to you. To sum up my thoughts, Foundations is a must-have EP for anyone who enjoys hardcore. It is very good instrumentally and vocally, the lyrics are good, and the mixing and production quality is very good for a relatively new and upcoming band.
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