Rise To Remain

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Rise To Remain

Rise To Remain "City Of Vultures" album

- Release date : September 2011 -

City of Vultures is the debut studio album by the British metal band Rise to Remain, released on the September 5, 2011 through EMI Records. The album debuted at #83 on the UK Album Charts and at #3 UK Rock Chart as well as #10 on the International Top 12 Charts in India.

"City Of Vultures" album tracks and lyrics

"City Of Vultures" album reviews

Despite winning Best Newcomer at both the 2010 Kerrang! and Metal Hammer awards, there's still an unhealthy amount of scepticism surrounding London-based five-piece metalcore outfit Rise to Remain, largely thanks to the accusations of nepotism being flung left, right, and center over frontman Austin Dickinson's famous father. The son of Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce may have received a bit of a leg-up (the band recently supported the metal legends on their European tour), but there's enough potential on their debut album, City of Vultures, to suggest they might have been awarded the same accolades without their family connections. Indeed, Austin is a different beast altogether, rather impressively performing the job of two men by shifting back and forth between clean melodic vocals and slightly demonic grunts during the same song, while the relentlessly aggressive production from Carl Bown and Colin Richardson, at times, lives up to the standard of the latter's work with Slipknot and Trivium, particularly the thrash metal of "This Day Is Mine" and the frantic angst-ridden "God Can Bleed." Overloaded with thunderous rhythms, pulverizing riffs, and some sterling solo work from lead guitarist Ben Tovey, its 12 tracks appear to make a mockery of those who question their authenticity, but other than the haunting neo-classical opener "Intro" and the Lostprophets-esque emo-rock ballad "Roads," the band appears unwilling to deviate from its intense guitar-shredding formula, meaning the album begins to run out of steam well before the rather brutal finale, "Bridges Will Burn," draws to a close. Rise to Remain, therefore, aren't likely to provide the shot in the arm to the British metal scene that their well-known associates did 30 years previously, but City of Vultures is a solid first offering suggesting that Dickinson Jr. is capable of stepping out of his father's shadows in the future.

*** by Jon O'Brien, All Music Guide ***

Rise to Remain have been sitting on City of Vultures for a while now. After signing to EMI the London five-piece took a year to shape this debut LP – but now it’s seen the light of day, delivering on the anticipation, any awards to come its way are wholly warranted. This is as good a debut album from a British metal band as you’re likely to hear in 2011.

After the album’s intro has receded, the first thing you hear of opener-proper The Serpent is not one of its vast, towering melodies. No. It’s a grunt. It’s certainly less easy to sing along to the Lamb of God/Pantera style vocals on show here, but immediately there’s a marriage between rhythmic groove metal and a looser, more European style. The riff-filled This Day Is Mine melds an old-school Bay Area thrash vibe with modern melodic metal, meaning that we end up hearing a fast but anthemic song. It sounds more confusing than it actually is.

Later, God Can Bleed is as harsh and angst-fuelled as it is melodic and comforting. The aptly authoritative Power Through Fear is as stimulating with its heaviness as it is beautiful with its refrains, and the chugging of one of their oldest songs, Nothing Left, is an interesting insight into where the band has come from.

It’s this constant mixing of styles that characterises Rise to Remain’s sound – it’s refreshing while still being comfortingly familiar without being unnecessarily progressive. They absolutely are the consequence of their influences (some of which are far from original), but the result is certainly greater than the sum of its parts.

Roads doesn’t quite hit the syrupy ballad spot, but with its slower tempo and soul-searching lyrics there is an overly-emotive feeling throughout. It’s far from uncomfortable listening, but at almost four-and-a-half minutes long it does end up becoming slightly staid. The heavy shredding of follower (and final track) Bridges Will Burn just highlights its awkward positioning in the album’s sequencing – but said closer, with a grand solo in the middle, comprises a fine end to a fine debut.

Because frontman Austin Dickinson is Bruce’s son, it’s a sad fact that Rise to Remain are linked with Iron Maiden at every turn. But that will pass in time, as there’s more than enough quality evident in this first release to point towards a great future for this young band.

*** by Raziq Rauf, BBC Music ***