30th September 2018

Review: “Juracan” EP by The Arusha Accord!

Rewind back to the start of summer 2017. Reading Tech-Metallers The Arusha Accord announced their return some 8 years after the release of debut full length “The Echo Verses” with a triumphant sold out show at Reading’s Sub89. The band then played the main stage at UK Tech-Fest and dropping singles “Vultures” and “Blackend Heart”. But something wasn’t right and having announced plans to self release 4x 5 track EPs over four years and play some 30 shows a year to keep the band going as a passion project, everything went quiet.

The band had recorded with former Periphery bassist Adam “Nolly” Getgood and George Lever at Middle Farm Studios. However the surprise exit of one half of their vocal duo in Alex Green and one half of their guitar duo in Tom Hollings left the remaining quartet in a difficult situation. After much delay and deliberation, “Juracan” has finally seen the light of day.

Starting with the full throttle “Blackend Heart”, a song that captures the very essence of The Arusha Accord sound with a SikTh-esq schizophrenia which is actually a facade as everything has its place. From the blisteringly good Tech-leads of the opening verse and punchy one two of the vocal screams into the driven and bouncy rhythms it’s a honed and polished sound from highly skilled musicians pushing themselves to their limits and loving every second. The clean chorus lines are a joy and well placed for a fist pumping sing-a-long. “Vultures” continues the ferociously high paced attack but also introduce a big chorus with some fine melodic clean vocals to balance out the rawness. Indeed some of the melodic leads and poly rhythms add extra layering and colour to what the band had produced with their previous outings. It’s clear that this is a new beginning and the band have grown as musicians and song writers while retaining their core sound. “The Road (Amor Vincit Omnia – Part #1)” is the first of the quartet of unreleased tracks on “Juracan” and sees a previously untapped vein of rich melody opened up with almost choral elements alongside slow burning melodic guitars. It’s perhaps as surprising from the band as it is surprisingly good.

“Beneath the Dule Tree” takes the progressive elements that underlay the bands sound and brings them to the fore. Continuing with the soaring clean vocals and blending them with some majestic technical melodic guitar work makes for a beauty that one might not have expected from the band that released “Dead To Me”. The chanced for experimentation has been taken and grasped with some help from Nolly Getgood and the results are stunning. “The Dark Pane – Part #1” is another gem, a 72 second piano introduction against a background of pouring rain that leads into the Mathcore soaked “The Dark Pane – Part #2”. A surprise 7 minute opus that builds through layers of clean and unclean vocals and riff after riff of guitar wizardry. Slowing down the pace allows the cleans to breathe while the clean and crisp drum sound can be heard throughout. When the music is as technical as this it needs a sympathetic mixing and mastering job and is exactly what has been achieved. Not only is “Juracan” a fantastic listen, it has been well worth the wait, a thing of beauty, passion and integrity that delivers so much more than expected [8/10].

Tracklisting