Means-To keep me from sinking

Facedown
2008

Means play a style of hardcore with some metal flavoring sprinkled in and they would not exactly fall in the category of metalcore. The music and the vocals are a bit more clean than typical metalcore styled bands. I get somewhat turned off by modern hardcore bands that think noise and growling through gritted teeth serves as hardcore. These guys are easily more technically competent than a number of other hardcore acts. Technical skills only go so far, but fortunately these are decent songs writers and the arrangements take advantage of their playing abilities. They are also fairly adept at conveying some emotion which is something I think a number of today's hardcore bands struggle with. The vocals contain some surprisingly smooth as silk melodies at times. This was a little startling at first, but I think this works because the music changes to fit along with it and the move along together. The only thing about this album that didn't quite convince me were the occasional growling vocals. They were not used a huge amount, but they came across as being a bit forced and didn't quite mesh with the rest of the song. Means play with enough conviction and talent to really keep you hanging onto what they are trying to accomplish here.

http://www.myspace.com/means_music