For Today - Prevailer E.P. (2013)

Good afternoon everyone. In my live review on Wednesday I promised to return with a review of the latest Jungle Rot album. However, due to another blog author in my area presumably seeing that statement and purposely writing a review before me (albeit a rather terrible one giving the band waaayyyyy too much credit, when let's be honest it's just Jungle Rot, they're not world changing.), I have chosen to review something else as I'd rather not look like some kind of dick. So here we have a brief review of Christian metalcore group For Today's latest E.P., Prevailer. Enjoy.

1. From Zion
2. Crown Of Thorns
3. Flesh & Blood
4. Open Heaven
5. Fearless (Acoustic)

For Today are a band that a few of you may not be that familiar with, so I'll give you the basics. They're a metalcore band from Sioux City, Iowa in the US of A, they're fiercely Christian, but also very accepting of fans who don't share their beliefs. And as a new age metalcore band, they're rock solid.

After the release of their 4th album "Immortal" in May of last year, the band has gone through some line-up changes. But they haven't let that slow them down one bit on this new E.P., where they've graced us with 4 new tracks and an acoustic reworking of their hit single "Fearless" from the last album.

Despite replacing two members the band is showing no sign of being bothered in the slightest. New sticksman David Puckett is an ample replacement for David Morrison, who departed to do missionary work in the middle east, and after rhythm guitarist Mike Reynolds left the band due to backlash from a wildly offensive homophobic rant on his twitter early this year, his replacement was found in former In The Midst Of Lions guitarist Sam Penner, who does an admirable job.

But anyway, on to the actual content of this release...

As well as sporting a cool cover (which only needs some blood and it could pass for a new Deicide release), the new tracks the band have released are just as solid as their full-length releases. Granted it's mostly breakdown based and the lyrics are uplifting stories regarding our saviour (if you believe of course), but the music is groovy and well written and the lyrics are catchy even if you're not a devout Christian. Vocalist Mattie Montgomery is positively seething on some of these tracks, particularly furious opener "From Zion" and "Crown Of Thorns". The E.P. ends with the newly reworked acoustic cover of "Fearless" and it works surprisingly well, I found myself singing along quite happily within seconds.

All in all, this is a nice E.P. release and I recommend it to any fans of the band or any people who are starting to listen to some of the more modern metalcore. Die-hard fans of old metalcore (Killswitch Engage, God Forbid et al.) won't appreciate this that much, neither will people who are bothered by the band's spiritual beliefs, but at the end of the day the music's good so who gives a fuck? Check it out and I hope some of you will be surprised.

8/10

The Prevailer E.P. is out now on Razor & Tie Records