Review: When Our Time Comes – 'When Our Time Comes'

When Our Time Comes are a five piece progressive metal outfit (Joe Carter-Hawkins – Vocals, Jack Gibson – Guitar, Ross Collier – Bass, Alexander Blair – Guitar and Dom Hope – Drums) from London. Since 2011, When Our Time Has Come have developed pretty rapidly releasing an EP ‘Test The Waters’ in 2012 and have played a selected amount of shows (Hacktavist, Visions, Subversion, Devolver, Black Polars, and Then The Wave Came). When Our Time Comes have recently made two massive announcements, the first being they are on the bill for this years HevyFest, and the second? They have signed with Life-force Records, with whom will be releasing their eponymous debut album, set to be released on the 15th April 2016 in Europe, and 6th May 2016 in North America.

Kicking off this record we have “Home Truths”, my favourite off this record, and the first track to be released from “When Our Time Comes”, which you can check out above.

“Beyond Limits” has a heavily instrumental start, with a lot of rock influences. Before long, you’ll find yourself tapping your foot and banging your head at the jumpy grooves. A female guest vocalist takes a part of the track slightly towards the end, slowing the track down before knocking it out of the park with the heavy grooves spiralling at the end!

 If you are into your beatdowns then “Port To Call” is the track to listen to. Heavily filled with different time signatures and bouncing instrumental beatdowns – definitely a track to get you popping!

“Breathe Again” definitely has to be one of the more heavier tracks from this record. From the beginning, it directly hits with the power of the bass and technicality of the guitar riffs. Throughout this track there are various beatdowns with the occasional squeal of guitar strings – Which for me makes this track. I feel the aggression.

Now, “50 Years From Now” was a funny one – When it first started playing, it gave me a Jazz-type feel from the riffs – Which was pretty cool, but as the track went on, these feels disappeared when it progressed into a pretty basic track. This wasn’t a stand-out track for me.

“We’re Here For A Reason”, on the other hand, I really liked. It’s heavy and it’s punchy. The vocals work incredibly well with the rhythm of the instrumental flow. I really liked way it sounded like it was just going to go absolutely nuts, but instead it simmers a little bit. It took me by surprise, which was refreshing. From halfway, though, it’s carnage all the way… then, right at the end, you really get an insight to what Joe can produce.

“The Devil You Know” was the mellow track of the album. Despite it having a couple heavy moments, it definitely stood out to having a more of an ambient feel. I really liked how it held different aspects compared to every other track. I liked the addition of slow, emotionally driven vocals, ambient guitar sounds, synth sounds, group vocals, and the piano piece in the dying seconds… Another highlight for me.

“Interlude”, as the title suggests, is not a song, but it’s absolutely delightful. A beautifully written instrumental piece, with male and female vocals layering it. Very ambient, and sets up for “Impending” incredibly well,  joint-favorite of mine. This is one of the more catchier pieces here. I loved the variation. Catchy, clean, heavy, jumpy… The chorus is great! Good track for a sing along!

“End Of An Era” isn’t for the faint-hearted. It is heavily controlled by the bass from the off. It is very, very punchy! The flow of clean vocals and guitar riffs work well together too.

Finally, “Following The Footsteps”, which was a bit of a let down. It felt like there was an amount of different things just thrown together to finish up a track for the sake of it, so I’ll just write this one off.

Overall, I thought this record was okay. There were a lot of different things to pay attention to, which was cool, like the change of time signatures, the technicality, the highs and lows, the solos, the power, the emotion… there’s plenty to depth to this album, however, at times, I did expect it just to go crazy, but I was left  unfulfilled. I did really like a couple of tracks, but I feel like these would be the only tracks that I would listen to again. I would recommend this record to fans of Monuments and TesseracT.

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Review by Carol Black

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