REVIEW: Cross My Heart – “Undefeated” (2013)

Cross My Heart
Undefeated
Unsigned

Now I had heard about some Iowa metalcore / post-hardcore band whose music was currently in the works from a friend of mine, and of course I didn’t know what to expect – I never do these days with all of the music that is going around anymore. Anyways, he later told me the name of said band was Cross My Heart and that their album would be probably coming around soon, and he recommended I check these guys out. I did, and ultimately I fell in love with this band.

Undefeated is Cross My Heart’s debut, their chance to really reach out to both fans and labels and show everyone just what they can really do and also what they can add to the scene. The album really is a good assembling of what metalcore and post-hardcore are, what they have to offer, and really things it has either been missing or left out for a while. While they don’t exactly bring anything brand new or innovative to the scene, Cross My Heart does bring a really fun and catchy albums that really reminds one of bands like Abandon All Ships or pre-Attack Attack! (US) at times, but at others really does have a mind of its own. Having an equal share of both groovy and raving electronic beats and pieces and very aggressive and angry drops and breakdowns – even at times throwing in both random and really gripping piano pieces. All these things, in the end, tie in together to really create some emotional, powerful and really enjoyable tracks.

As I said, though, this isn’t something really new, but I don’t think these guys were going for new anyways. The band wrote, recorded and put together an album they wanted – with sounds that they like. This album isn’t about what the world is looking for or about what they can do to really just pull more fans in – it’s about what the band wanted and what was good to them, and really, they pulled it off and it all worked out for them. This is a solid release for any metalcore or post-hardcore fan. Of course, I want to mention that the lyrics can sometimes be a bit cheesy and make the listener think that they might have heard that line or those lyrics before, but like I also said, none of this is taking away from anything. This album is aggressive and fun, a mix that is often seen but not always enjoyed, but in this case it is fully enjoyable. Definitely check these guys and their music out, they’ve got quite a bit to offer and do it in a way that is really exciting to the listener.

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