Metalcore favourites ERRA deliver the goods on excellent sixth album, Cure.
Jesse Cash is having quite the year. It was just weeks ago that ERRA’s chief songwriter dropped the fantastic new album from his alt.rock project Ghost Atlas, with attentions now turning to the arrival of the sixth LP from his ‘main’ band. Thankfully – and perhaps unsurprisingly – the quality hasn’t dipped at all. Cure cements ERRA’s status as one of metalcore’s most reliable bands.
The Parkway Drive-esque title-track opens proceedings with some dominant riffing that’s backed up by the potent vocals of J.T. Cavey, who dovetails with Jesse’s cleans to good effect across this song and the album as a whole. The quality of the two vocalists is a real high point of Cure, adding genuine emotional weight to songs like the brilliant Past Life Persona. Slow Sour Bleed, meanwhile, contains some gorgeous vocal melodies that are offset by the dark, atmospheric stomp of the music behind them.
More big moments arrive by way of Idle Wild and Pale Iris – the latter an excellent example of the aggression-meets-melody balance that all the best metalcore has – while the potent riffing on Rumor Of Light excels with a guitar tone akin to that found on Architects’ celebrated Holy Hell. Tracks this mighty will blow the roof off the Dogtooth tent ERRA are set to appear in at this year’s Download Festival.
The cumulative outcome of ERRA’s fine work on Cure is an album that showcases the sonic power of metalcore when the genre is executed with due care and craft. It’s not quite a revolutionary work, but Cure is an undeniably strong addition to the metalcore canon.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: Parkway Drive, Architects, Silent Planet
Cure is released April 5 via UNFD. Catch ERRA at Download, which takes place from June 14 – 16 at Donington Park – get your tickets now.
