- Release Info -------------------------------------------------------------- -
Artist: Canvas
Album: No Love, No Hope, No Future
Label: Transcend Music
Playtime: 33:15 min
Genre: Hardcore
URL: http://www.facebook.com/wearecanvasuk
Rip date: 2014-10-28
Street date: 2014-10-20
Size: 66.20 MB
Type: Normal
Quality: 258 kbps / 4410Hz / Joint Stereo
- Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------- -
No Love, No Hope, No Future is a probing examination; an intensive exploration
of sound, the listener, and maybe even more so of the band and emotions which
created it. The debut release from British melodic hardcore/post-metallers
Canvas, the album is a dramatic and seriously imposing proposition which given
time and attention emerges as a rather startling and compelling encounter. In
no way is it an easy listen physically and emotionally, but equally it is a
rigorous captivation which reveals more depths as it flourishes in thoughts
given time and space.
Self-penned as æmusic for miseryÆ, the sound Canvas expels is bred in personal
and emotional darkness which in turn sparks and brings out similar shadows in
the listener. It is at times a demanding cause for reflection, and certainly
across its length a mirror for recognisable issues for its recipients, though
with a melancholic beauty and ravishing sonic enterprise it is not a
provocation to worry The Samaritans. Vocalist Jack Rodgers said of the new
album, ôThese songs are from a time in my life where I felt a bit lost, like a
failure and a let-down,ö going on to say ôThese songs were my catharsis, a way
of getting all my thoughts and worries off of my mind and channelling myself
into something productive. But, they are nevertheless some of the darkest
songs we have ever written.ö
Since forming in 2012, Canvas has been a hungry force live, touring and
breeding a potent following across the UK and Europe. 2013 was especially busy
for the band but they managed to find time to enter the studio with producer
Ed Sokolowski. It has taken a year to fully emerge, but that æbreakÆ bred the
sizeable proposition of No Love, No Hope, No Future, a recorded introduction
to Canvas which definitely marks them out from the crowd.
Released via Transcend Music, the album floats in with the first touch of No
Future, a song soon under the formidable vocal scowl of Rodgers and an
anthemic rhythmic enticing from drummer Jon Vernon. It is a gripping entrance,
drums and voice contrasts in attack and united in their potency as expressive
flames of guitar from Dan Marsh and Chris Vernon clasp the senses. It is a raw
dawn to the album but equally there is a distressed elegance and beauty
smothering the sounds around Rodgers which tempers the abrasing emotions. The
track flows straight into the following Live.Exist where riffs and grooves are
there waiting to embrace and bind ears and imagination. The caustic tones of
Rodgers lay in a transfixing tapestry of sonic imagination and rhythmic drama
toned with dark hunger by bassist Ricky Clarke, whilst musically the song is a
maelstrom of inventive endeavour and breath-taking sonic colour which
persistently evolves and twists with ideas. The same applies to both Griever
and Tired Eyes, two further big strides in the ascent of the album to grip
thoughts and the passions. The first of the two bruises and seduces
simultaneously, melodies and harmonies a mesmeric caress within the sonic and
creative turbulence of the song and against the uncompromising vocals, whilst
its successor prowls and rages rhythmically and sonically to sculpt a furnace
of angst fuelled passion and erosive intensity again driven by Rodgers
scarring delivery.
Both songs are glorious but highlight, certainly for personal tastes the only
issue stopping the album being an unshakeable favourite. Rodgers is impressive
and unrelenting with his corrosive tones and the almost bullying nature of his
delivery. He brings the distraught and uncomfortable essences of emotions
explored by lyrics and sound out perfectly, representing their strengths and
weaknesses impressively with his predominantly pleasing style and intensity,
but this also at times works against songs, the lack of real diversity to his
attack a wearing factor over time and often a potent distraction to the
striking imagination going on around him, as shown in the next up Nothing
Left. With small yet maybe bold twists ahead hopefully it is something the
bandÆs growth will address to fulfil the weight of potential which ripples
vivaciously within the whole of the band and their songwriting.
From the provocative but ultimately underwhelming slow reflective raw croon of
Nothing Left, because of what was just mentioned, the album grips senses and
thoughts once again with the transfixing Respite, which emerges from the cold
honesty of the previous song, and the unpredictable emotional ravaging of
Tarot. The first of the pair is a brief and haunting but powerful instrumental
which shines in the radiance of its sounds and skills of the band whilst the
second is a charging onslaught of virulent intensity and vocal ferocity. With
rhythmic nostrils flaring, riffs raging, and pain coursing through every
syllable and engaging sonic intrusion, the track is a furnace of emotion and
aural colour, and quite engrossing.
The album is brought to a close by firstly the mournful and savage drama of
Eulogy, where voice and sound make a thick portrayal of lost hope and
enslaving anguish. It is a commanding and demanding offering but scintillating
in its inventiveness and the vocal fury from Rodgers and band, which here does
stretch their boundaries for a thrilling result. The song alone has all that
is needed to breed anticipation of major things for and from Canvas ahead. Its
might is reinforced by the almost concussive weight and startling enterprise
of Desperation. Within its smothering intensity though, the track ascends to a
plateau of celestial beauty and melodic grace which is mesmeric and calming,
though constantly pulled back to raging earth by the emotional turmoil exposed
by Rodgers vocals.
Though the short and ok repetitive emotional ætrapÆ of Cold and Asleep
actually provides the last incitement, Desperation provides the real masterful
close to what is a fine debut, with only that more personal preference than
actual issue, to rein it back from making an even more powerful statement.
Canvas is a band with the armoury to build templates ahead, already they stand
apart from most investigating similar landscapes of sound, and it is only
early days.
- Track List ---------------------------------------------------------------- -
01. No Future ( 1:59)
02. Live/Exist ( 3:50)
03. Griever ( 3:19)
04. Tired Eyes ( 3:20)
05. Nothing Left ( 3:59)
06. Respite ( 1:50)
07. Tarot ( 3:38)
08. Eulogy ( 3:53)
09. Desperation ( 5:35)
10. Cold & Asleep ( 1:52)
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