Onward To Olympas - The War Within Us

Artist: Onward To Olympas
Album: The War Within Us
Release Date: 3/15/11
Label: Facedown Records

Early last year, Facedown Records released the debut release from Onward To Olympas, titled This World Is Not My Home, which was a solid, and underrated, album. Now, over a year later, after the addition of a new drummer and guitarist/clean vocalist, the band is back with their sophomore album, The War Within Us. Besides some lineup changes, vocalist Kramer Lowe's growls have also gotten much deeper and angrier, which give the album a heavier tone. New clean vocalist Andy Simmons brings a lot more to offer as well. At first, I'll admit I was a bit skeptical of his vocals, thinking them to sound a bit too "scene," sounding like every other band out there, but on further listen, I can say that he has a better range than former clean vocalist Justin Gage.

The War Within Us opens up with "The Continuance," an intro track that, as its namesake says, continues through the slow riff heard on the title track on This World Is Not My Home, but adds in a marching-snare for good measure, which quite literally explodes, with a bass drop, into "The War Within Us," which shows off Kramer's aforementioned angry growls, contrasted by Andy's cleans, which come across a bit whiny in this song, and this song only. The chorus of "Revealing" contains a bold statement of "Take a breath and realize, this world is falling from, the only One we need." Southern metal sounding guitars start off "Hidden Eyes," which sounds like it could have been placed on their previous album, while the intro of "Seeker" is a slow guitar line that quickly builds up.

Both "Seeker" and "Structures" boast some killer solos, that metalheads will be sure to love, something that Onward To Olympas does not incorporate much into The War Within Us, but when done, are very high quality. Two tracks later, the album takes a brief time to slow down, with the heartfelt, worshipful "The March," a song that reassures that God will provide for us in our times of pain. The album's two heaviest tracks coincidentally follow, "Accuser" and "From The Mouth." The former of the two features great guitar work and effects, while the latter may just be one of the band's heaviest songs to date, and maybe their heaviest. After a few seconds of slow double-bass drumming, "Rebuilt" breaks open with a distorted growl of "resurrection!" Much like the closer of This World Is Not My Home, the song follows the same formula, and slows down after two minutes of in your face growling, into atmospheric guitars and an array of voices joining together, before a familiar marching snare comes in to end the The War Within Us, much like it opened it.

Overall: Onward To Olympas are back with their sophomore release, The War Within Us, and it shows a lot of improvement from their debut album. An unprecedented heavy romp that mixes brutality with clean cut melody, the band have crafted an album that is a step up from their already well done sound. Well a lot of the songs stick with the same song formula, some are a step outside of the band's usual sound, adding in a slower, ballad-type song, and some great solos to go along with the expected bass drops and heavy dose of growling. From the sounds of The War Within Us, Onward To Olympas have done something right, and can only get better.

Rating: 8/10

Tracklisting:

1. The Continuance
2. The War Within Us
3. Revealing
4. Hidden Eyes
5. Seeker
6. Structures
7. Unsuitable Patterns
8. The March
9. Accuser
10. From The Mouth
11. Rebuilt

(Buy Here)