A Call to Sincerity is a five piece melodic metalcore band, hailing from Paris, France. Their debut full length, Foundations, is a pretty big step up from their EP. While the EP wasn’t bad by any means, the full-length is leaps and bounds better. When the album starts with Get Out Alive, the first thing I thought about was Three Days Grace’s song with the same title. Thankfully, this sounds nothing like that. The things that really stand out are the awesome melodic riffs and leads and heavy vocals. Usually you don’t hear such heavy vocals in a melodic hardcore/metalcore band, but that’s what gives this band a very distinct sound. The second track, Deceiver, starts off with a bone-crushing breakdown and features two extremely good guitar leads later on in the song. Despite being a great song, this is actually one of my least favourite songs on Foundations. I guess that’s really saying something! The third track, At the Edge of…, starts off pretty heavy again and then has a really cool effect that sounds like glass smashing. Other than that, there’s nothing that stands out on this song. The “second half” of At the Edge of… is …Our World, which is the fourth track is another good song, but again, nothing really stands out. Next up is The Novelist. At this point in the album, I started to notice that the vocals are immaculate. The guitar and drumming are nearly immaculate as well. My favourite part of this song is the 2-step-ish part near the end of the song that has some good melodic guitar layered over it. The sixth track, A Misunderstanding, is definitely one of my favourites. Within the first ten seconds of A Misunderstanding, my jaw had already hit the floor, and when the vocals came in, my jaw went right through my basement floor and continued to descend all the way to the Earth’s molten core. This was also the song that lead me to check out this band, and I’m glad I did, because this is one of the best albums I have heard in a long time. I will get back to that point later. Through Horizons features one of my favourite parts on the album. Half of this song is a big breakdown, but it’s not just chugging. There are plenty of leads layered over top which gives this song a really nice sound. The eighth track, Whispers, has some more really good guitar leads and a vocal effect that many bands seem to use now. I only have one issue with this album and that’s the vocal effect on this track and the next, but it is a very minor thing that only lasts for two seconds on each song, so I won’t delve into that.
The next track, Mayhem, opens up with the aforementioned vocal effect. There are some more really good leads and a good breakdown on this track and if it was a little bit longer, it would be one of my favourites on Foundations, but it just seems to end so quickly. The final track on Foundations is “Walking Straight Across Bad Omens” featuring Eudes Furet. This is the perfect way to end an amazing album. “Walking Straight Across Bad Omens” is probably my favourite on the album because of how well it’s executed. It opens with an awesome segment that makes me just want to move around in my house, then has some really good leads. The guest vocals on this track are also very good.
Everything about Foundations is awesome. The vocals are top notch, the guitar leads and riffs are incredible, the drumming is really good, and the lyrical content is pretty good as well. I also really like how there are guitar leads over most of the breakdowns which helps to keep it interesting. My favourite part about this album is that it’s fairly lengthy and does not get repetitive at all. If I were to pick a few bands that A Call to Sincerity sounds like, I would say that they are similar to Changes-Era FTFD, but with a little more melody, and the vocals are similar to Onward to Olympas. So, if you’re a fan of either of those bands, I suggest you pick this album up, or at the very least, listen to a few tracks on YouTube.
It’s still very early in the year, but I think that Foundations has a very good chance of being one of the best lesser-known “core” albums of 2012.
Links: Facebook
