Last week I looked at a track that was totally out of my comfort zone and like I said during the review, it was almost the stark-opposite to anything that I had done before on the blog. Now however I think I’m gonna go back to some familiar ground and cover a track more in vein of the hardcore/metalcore that I have tackled before; Vera Cruz’s “Break The Lies”.
So, to start off I’m guessing very few (if anyone) reading this even knows of these guys, let me fill you in; these dudes are a French band that rose to popularity on the underground scene because of raucous live tours with those Canadian work-horses Cancer Bats. They are fuelled with the same fury that these guys are and even have a similar sound, maybe the only difference being that the vocals are more influenced by punk rock whereas the Bats’ are more akin to metal.
These dudes are real nice; I think I’d say I’ve become one of their biggest supporters and news spreaders, hell I’d even say that I’m a mega-fan and a friend of the band. I remember reading about these guys when they were announced as the support for a Cancer Bats show I was going to in 2010. They had this EP up on their MySpace site for free, ‘Surviving Farah Fawcett’ which included 4 tracks so I went ahead and downloaded it, see what these guys were about. I was instantly blown away and ended up like throwing this download at my mate that was going with me to the Bats show and told him to listen. We were both in awe, and ended up being just as psyched about seeing Vera Cruz as we were to see the Cancer Bats!!
The show was excellent; the venue was this tiny bar and was packed full of 300 sweaty hardcore punk men ready to spend the next 2 hours banging into each other and they had the right bands to go it to. This was the gig that made me addicted, and there’s this one moment that stands out even to this second that I don’t think I’ll ever forget: then lead singer Flav got straight into my face and we both screamed at each other, it was something that changed music for me from being a nice pass time to a necessity. Their set ended with a bunch of us in an on-stage mosh pit and embracing the band, accepting them into this world of acclaimed hardcore, I know for a fact that the band cherish this performance and see it as a welcoming (and invitation for as many future shows as possible) to Scotland.
So now that’s been done, lets actually look at the track; “Break The Lies” comes straight from the band’s first (and so far only full album release) ‘Skinandteethandnails’, released in 2012. It’s actually a re-recording of a track that was released about a year earlier on the EP ‘Rise And Deny’ under the title of “I4NI”; mind you not too much is different apart from a shortened intro and better quality of recording.
In my honest opinion I’d go ahead and say that it’s the heaviest track that Vera have ever recorded, and I’d even say that it’s probably the best song they have in their arsenal. Record-wise its easily a stand-out track; it’s one of few faster, more non-stop 80’s hardcore-like tracks on ‘Skinandteethandnails’. When it comes to live shows, having personally heard this jam live (and even sung the last part *yep, I’m shoe-horning in an achievement haha*), the fast quality the song has in its recorded format really pushes through when played live, the fans need this and it goes over much better than a more methodical and slower type of hardcore song. To put its importance into a simple way of thinking; Vera Cruz playing “Break The Lies” live is like Black Flag playing “Fix Me” or “Nervous Breakdown”, it gets the crowd going and moving which is obviously imperative to a hardcore punk show.
The instrumentals of the song really are heavy and fast; the guitars chug along and just seem to speed everything up and keep a sense of urgency going through-out the entire 3 minutes and 23 seconds. The drums do an even better job of this, with the frantic smashing of the skins hammering through, the speed of these are seriously something that needs to be heard. To complete this sense of velocity the vocals given off by former lead singer Flav are simply beautiful, he screams like his life is depending on it; from the opening beat to the final guitar strum Flav’s voice is almost constant in this track.
Keeping up this speed isn’t easy, especially in a genre where breakdowns are something that’s a must, and yeah this song has breakdowns used to slow the song down but somehow the band literally blow right through these and seem to not stop or slow down at all. It’s something I’ve never seen or heard before, the song slows down but doesn’t!
Lyrically I can only assume that “Break The Lies” goes to cover the subject of revenge and going out for yourself by taking back what is yours. As always with lyrical interpretations this is something that I’m doing by just reading the words and taking out what I get, these in no way are definitely what is trying to be conveyed. Obviously the fury of the delivered vocals and the overall sound of the song also help thrust this idea of revenge and maybe even barbaric revenge forward.
Like I said before, I’ve heard/seen this track performed live and it really is a sight, hell this band live as a whole is a sight that if you EVER get the chance to see them, do yourself a favour and go. Keep in mind this was with former lead man Flav, I haven’t seen new vocal man Thierry Ruiner shred his throat yet (but I will next month), but the energy that was given off during this song was amazing. Flav seemed to spend more time in the air than he did on the ground, guitarists Florian and Greg explored the stage to the fullest, with Greg reminding me of Greg Puciato of Dillinger Escape Plan with his climbing of amps and jumping into the fans and taking to the back of the room to rage. Not missing out drummer Yoann, obviously drummers don’t get the chance to give off much of stage presence but the playing was top-notch and seemed to go even faster than the recorded version.
Vera Cruz ARE the future of metalcore; they are slowly but surely building a fanbase and reputation for being a kickass, no nonsense band (both on-stage and off) and really do have what it takes to conquer the hardcore world. This song is just the tip of it all, they have a new record coming soon from what I understand and with a pretty major UK tour starting up next month, these French dudes are clearly putting the work in and we’ll see what happens in 5 years or so when bands such as Every Time I Die and Converge are maybe winding down and see who takes over: I’d bet all that I have that Vera Cruz will be up there.
"Break The Lies" is available at the link below, sure you can buy it from iTunes but Bandcamp is more beneficial to the band so that's why I'm using this this week, but its also available from pretty much any site the sells anything these days too (including iTunes).
If anyone is interested in taking the reigns for next week or any week, hit me up on the Facebook page.
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