We recently got our hands on the debut Asymmetry EP ‘Paying for Change’. Vocalist, Carl De Wit describes the release as follows: ‘The concept of the EP is about following your dreams and burning bridges with your past to reinvent yourself from the ground up. All of the songs start off dark then slowly progress toward a solution lyrically. We try to show that life needs balance and in order to obtain that you need to burn some bridges and learn to love ourselves and others around us.’
After a good few listens this is what Scott Zambonini had to say in a play-by-play style review:
Sanity
Sanity starts with a sweet ambient delay vocal samples and drum build-up. The break features some stabbing driven guitar chords and syncopated chugs backed by ambient pads. Overall it acts as a pleasant introduction to the EP and what's to come.
Wasted Youth
Split leads bring in this song followed by an eerie vocal feature from Clint Watts of One Day Sky. A dissonant pre-chorus is then presented followed by some nice guitar work and layered screams. There's also an interesting panned guitar interplay which you don't hear often in recent metal releases.
Carbon Heart
Carbon Heart enters with a glitchy alternating pan vocal effect backed by melodic guitars. The song then moves into some chugging riffs combined with squeals adding some contrast and variety. The chorus hits after a stop with a really pleasing clean vocal and melody showing there's more to this band than just brutality. The song continues with some great chordal staccatos and melodic leads.
Fractured Perspective
The songs starts with some dark riffs and a good mix of high and lows panned to-the-T. It then picks up pace and intensity and I can't help but feel a familiarity to a band I heard years ago called The Crimson Armada. The song then opens to a melodic arpeggio accompanied by tight rhythms. The drums keep a solid double kick with some breaks in cymbal work. The song then picks up again with an increase in pace and intensity to end on a head bang.
FAE
The song kicks off with a clean intro and progresses into a Dream on Dreamer style break with elements of hardcore driving the verse. The song overall has a more downtempo feel with chuggy breakdowns, staccato leads and layered screams.
Overall this debut EP is well worth a listen and comes highly recommended by the SBP team.
- By Scott Zambonini
Credits:
Clinton Watts (Mixing and Mastering), He Luchen (Chaser Records), Rabbit (From Horror of Pestilence band - Recording) and Arkham Film (Lyric video).
About Asymmetry:
https://www.facebook.com/AsymmetryBandChina/
Band Members:
Vocals: Tang Hong Liang and Carl de Wit.
Guitar: Wang Jun Yang
Bass: Zeng Hao
Drums : Zhao Ze
Asymmetry, formed in 2014, is a 5-piece Metalcore Melodic Hardcore band from Chengdu, China. Greatly influenced by many metalcore and post-rock, Asymmetry's music is always balanced with headbanging riffs and ambient melodies.
The band won the national championship of the 4th Orange Live Original hosted by Xiami Musicians and Tudou Music in March, 2015 and then released a music video for their hit single, which shortly hit 1200000 view in 1 month. In the August of the same year, the band performed on the main stage of Tudou Image festival in Shanghai Expo Park.
Produced by the vocalist and guitarist of Horror of Pestilence, the band recorded their first EP in the summer of 2017 in Guangzhou, which will be released soon at the end of this year.
