Album review: Acres – The Host

Everyone has something they can’t live without. That’s the uncomfortable truth at the heart of Acres’ fathomless third album. Transforming themselves from South Coast screamo kingpins to legitimate alt.metal dynamos, the Portsmouth boys have struggled for the thematic architecture around which to build their massive sounds but here, they plumb jittery energy and intense emotion from the idea we are all hosts being eaten away inside.

Keeping things to the point is a masterstroke. Although The Host is officially a full-length addition to their discography, its seven tracks flash by in under 23 minutes. There is zero padding, precious little leeway for off-message indulgence, and absolutely no allowance for fucking around. Even still, it feels massive, modern and remarkably fully formed.

Album opener Bloodlust shapeshifts through ambient atmospherics, thudding synth-work, seductive vocals (‘There’s a world on the tip of my tongue’) and ferocious metalcore without ever feeling overstuffed or contrived. Not So Different is the sort of arena-metal behemoth Architects would be proud of – complete with scream-your-heart-out chorus, while Staring At The Sun rattles with urgency as races between glowing warmth and cold shadow.

Built To Bleed feels like an audacious centre point. Easily the heaviest song here, it toys with the spring-loaded sounds of nu-metal, but reworks them into a far more uncomfortably dystopian soundscape. Elsewhere, Your Goodbye counterpoints the weight with a burst of breezy emo before Steal The Light veers back to the cutting edge with a blend of R&B sensuality and steely bludgeon.

By the time honeyed final track Around Again arrives, you're ready for its 165-second salve. And as its title suggests listeners will be racing back to the start to dive back in. A wildly confident statement from some of Brit-metal’s most credible contenders.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Dayseeker, Architects, Boston Manor

The Host is released on May 2 via Solid State / Tooth & Nail