By Travis Coltrain
One Last Embrace, hailing from Hialeah, Florida, creates a nostalgic yet contemporary vibe of late 2000s post-hard-core music with its EP Mechanical Hearts.
The band, consisting of members keyboardist Karen Suarez, bassist Johnny Centeno, drummer Scott Dotson, guitarist Kenny Riveron and vocalist Angelina Lopez, recently released their stupefying début EP.
The project opens strong with “Dreamhunter,” an electronic song that has its roots embedded in electropop. The electronic sound smoothly falls into the vocals accompanied by the screamer that coalesce seamlessly; it sends chills down the listener’s spine.
The song starts strong and doesn’t let up as it progresses through its unique combination of the vocalist’s wide range and the band’s ability to mix electric and hard-core sounds effectively.
As I listened, I couldn’t help but be thrown back to 2009, when I heard Asking Alexandria for the first time, yet this time there was an identifiable dynamic that only a lead female singer can throw in.
Mechanical Hearts follows powerfully into the next song “Clocks,” which relies heavily on the compelling vocals of Lopez, backed by the booming echoes of the bassist and guitarist. The song reminds you how precious time is as it shows the time spent listening to the song itself isn’t wasted.
The next song, “Serenity,” provides juxtaposition for the name considering it gives the guitarist and drummer a time to shine as it overtakes the previous songs by throwing in an almost funky and jazzy feeling.
That style dissipates, and the track transforms into the familiar rock sound that you’d hear from the likes of Paramore. While the drummer should have been given more time to shine, he manages to temper the beat to the melody that fills in beautifully with the rest of the band’s sound.
The next song, “Bury Me,” is named appropriately; it is the weakest part of the album. While there isn’t anything wrong with the song itself, the sound and vibe it gives off is almost homogenizing themselves with stereotypical post-hard-core music. The song is OK, but would be better if the band was willing to get more experimental with its sound.
All members have the ability to do so but seem to be holding themselves back in “Bury Me,” which ends energetically thanks to the small vocal time of the screamer, who should have been given more parts throughout the entire EP.
However, the band makes up for it with the EP’s final song, “Gold,” which starts electrically and allows itself to stay so while not letting the rock aspect of it overwhelm the sound. The song’s use of vocal echoes and soulful lyrics and the buoyant sound of the guitarist, drummer and bassist intermingling with the keyboard are intoxicating.
“Gold” ends the album stronger than it began, it throwing me back into middle school invoking the same feelings listening to bands such as A Day To Remember, Paramore, and Asking Alexandra did.
Mechanical Hearts is a stupendous début album that shines a strong spotlight on One Last Embrace. While the band is still new and has a lot of growing to do, it’s obvious this EP sets a golden road ahead of it.
Overall, the EP deserves four out of five stars for their contemporary unification of post-hard-core and electropop.
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