This Be The Verse album review – This Be The Verse

London’s industrial debutants This Be The Verse go overboard on the gears. Read our album review here...

This Be The Verse album cover

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You know the saying about cooks and broth? The same rule applies to ideas and albums. This Be The Verse’s first full-length has some genuinely interesting moments, but as a whole is weighed down by superfluous elements packed into the 10 tracks like musical sardines.

On the surface this is an industrial record, with influences coming from NIN’s trippy darkness rather than the more aggro Ministry. There are also dalliances with Dillinger Escape Plan, Marilyn Manson, The Hives and more throughout; How Can You Sleep At Night even has a Queen-esque hook clamped on to it.

Bursting with unconnected styles, the one constant is the electronics. While the ‘rockier’ songs come across like an Enter Shikari tribute, the melancholic synth-led tracks are much better. Alone’s minimal bleakness and My OST’s 80s/Hotline Miami vibe should be expanded upon, rather than trying to worship at the altar of Trent. This would have been a great EP.

Luke Morton joined Metal Hammer as Online Editor in 2014, having previously worked as News Editor at popular (but now sadly defunct) alternative lifestyle magazine, Front. As well as helming the Metal Hammer website for the four years that followed, Luke also helped relaunch the Metal Hammer podcast in early 2018, producing, scripting and presenting the relaunched show during its early days. He also wrote regular features for the magazine, including a 2018 cover feature for his very favourite band in the world, Slipknot, discussing their turbulent 2008 album, All Hope Is Gone.