The Death Card (tarot card) when received is a card that represents the death of one aspect of life, and the beginning of another. For Sworn In, this is just the beginning, and the bands first full-length is finally here. After several months of waiting, Sworn In is ready to take that next step forward with The Death Card.
There are a handful of words I could use to describe The Death Card; eerie, emotional, dark, powerful, hypnotic, all these terms noticeably have no positive vibe to them. This album tells the story of a man, or a character who is slowly losing his mind, his emotions, physical human characteristics, and is constantly contemplating death in each song (and eventually ending in death on the final two songs). Lyrically this album stays consistent with those thoughts and amazingly tells that story song after song. The title track, “XIII” gives a precursor to the album, which puts the entire record on a constant ever-descending loop. Sworn In might not be the band you want to listen to if your looking for metal love songs. Be ready for some powerful vocals from Tyler Dennen that will make you uncomfortable, awestruck and pissed off all at the same time. I got the same feeling of amazement and discomfort from the first time I listened to Slipknot’s “Iowa”, as I did with The Death Card. Corey Taylor and Tyler Dennen are clearly two different vocalists with entirely different styles, but I think fans of Slipknot would be surprised with what Sworn In has to offer.
Musically the album stays consistent with the playing style, riffs and heaviness. Each song is written with a different structure and different patterns, and seems to have a common theme of mixing up between speeding up & speeding down. The flow of the album fits right along side with the lyrics and really tells a dark story. Old fans can really see how Sworn In has grown since their previous EP’s in all aspects, but above all the music has matured a lot. Some may find the breakdowns and riffs are too similar and that could take away from the uniqueness of their sound. I find the music and riffs to be powerful and creative, but I definitely see room for growth, which isn’t a problem since this is their first full-length album.
Despite Sworn In’s consistent fan base growth over these past few months, I still see their market and audience hard too reach because not everybody is into music this dark and troubling. However I’m sure people could say the same thing about bands like Slipknot, Korn and Emmure when they first started, and everybody can see how far those acts have come. We’ll all have to wait and see how The Death Card takes off.
Sworn In has now made their mark in the world with The Death Card, and I highly recommend it for fans of Slipknot, Emmure and Bring Me The Horizon. Check out their music videos for “Snake Eyes” and “Hypocrisy”
9/10
Ryan
