The Risk Taken End Commence

Although it's generally not a label that I follow very closely, I am consistently impressed by the releases from Jamey Jasta's Stillborn Records. Though few of the bands he finds seem to possess unbridled creativity, most of them are pros when it comes to writing catchy songs and playing their respective instruments. The Risk Taken is yet another one of these bands for whom the fun generated through listening outweighs the occassional predictability of what they're doing. The band features former members of With Honor and In Pieces and sounds roughly like a mixture of the two. If you're not familiar with those bands, then you could also imagine if The Promise and Shai Hulud melded into one slightly less impressive band. The twelve minutes of music on this disc are honestly a lot more fun to listen to than most of the records I've gotten lately. The guitar sound reminds me a little bit of Strife which is ALWAYS a good thing. Every song has at least one great "hook" (if you can call them that) that sets the band apart from what a lot of these sorts of hardcore bands are doing. Lyrically, they basically do the whole Shai Hulud thing, only not quite as well. The notable exception to this is "My Last Midnight," a song that has lyrics entirely derived from the final letter of a German revolutionary before her impending death in a Nazi gas chamber. Apparently the band recognized a sentiment in her words that echoed their own feelings better than they could express them with their own words. While some might call this a cop-out (or alternately pretentious), it struck me as both an bit risky and enitrely appropriate. Bottom Line: While their name might not exactly fit in with their relatively tried and true musical approach, the Risk Taken have put their musical abilities to work and it has paid off for both the band and music listeners. Despite its brevity, the Risk Taken's "End Commence" is more enjoyable than 98% of hardcore that has incorporated elements of metal. I would definitely check out anything this band recorded and would recommend that you do the same.