A few years ago, a band by the name of Goodmorning, Gorgeous from Texas formed and released an EP entitled This Home. Since then, the band has changed up a few members and taken a more progressive approach – incorporating several more guitar melodies than before – rather than heavily relying on chugging and breakdowns. The new EP from this metalcore outfit, entitled Capstone, is set to release on September 3.
Capstone begins with some ambience followed by a mini drum fill and a simple but effective guitar lead in the track titled “Filth.” As soon as the vocals came in, I knew I was in for a treat and I was going to enjoy this EP much more than the debut simply because of the new and improved vocalist; if you could imagine what a blend of Jorge Sotomayor (Adaliah) and Hunter Young (Silence) would sound like, you’d get Drew Buckner.
While the following two tracks (“Soul Walker [Make Your Way]” and “In Us We Trust”) aren’t flawless, they’re both on par with the intro track and keep the EP pushing on in the right direction. However, one thing that I wasn’t too fond of was the clean vocals heard in “In Us We Trust.” For the most part, the song flows incredibly well, but it just seems a bit awkward when the cleans come in. I think they sound decent and quite original, but they don’t fit well with the makeup of the song.
“Naive Youth” is one of the more diverse tracks on Capstone, combining fast-paced and groovy verses with a melodic chorus and build up near the middle of the song. The track closes with a nice melodic lead that sets up an even more impressive lead heard in the beginning of “Echoed Months” – which was released by the band as a music video in early August. “Echoed Months” features an incredible sweeping solo near the end that single-handedly makes the track one of my favourites on Capstone.
The last three tracks (one is a 28-second interlude ingeniously titled “Interlude”) impressed me greatly – just like the rest of the release. As a whole, “Nature vs. Nurture” is very solid and the bass is extremely noticeable, making the song sound even angrier than the majority of the EP. “Interlude” is a quick spoken-word break with a strong message that continues on into the final track, “Clouded Verity.” There’s so many things that the band did right with the final track that I can’t even focus on one or two aspects to talk about. Simply put, Goodmorning, Gorgeous couldn’t have picked a better song to close out Capstone.
In every way, shape and form, Capstone is a drastic improvement on This Home. The vocals (yes, even the cleans that I felt were unnecessary/out of place in the track they were featured) are some of the best you’ll hear in the genre, and despite a fair amount of chugging and breakdowns, the musicianship is above average; the chugging is almost always accompanied with some kind of melody and it is very rarely the main focus of any particular part of any song, and the solos are incredible (I just wish there was a few more of them).
