Spiderman fans will recognize the name Gwen Stacy, who was Peter Parker's first true love. Gwen Stacy is also a Christian metalcore band from Indiana. I'm not sure what it is about that state, but there are a lot of successful Christian metal and hardcore bands from that state, including Haste The Day, Kingston Falls and Faith Never Surrender.
Gwen Stacy is trying to follow in their footsteps with their debut CD The Life I Know. It's by the numbers metalcore with crunchy riffs, massive breakdowns and a combination of harsh and melodic vocals. There are some promising moments here, where they launch from clever riffs to big breakdowns to catchy choruses.
Unfortunately there aren't enough of those moments to sustain the entire album. A couple songs are really good, but most just aren't memorable enough to stand out. When it comes to the vocals, the harsh yells and screams are far superior to the melodic singing. They are raw and emotional and delivered with power, and the melodic vocals are average at best.
(released February 5, 2008 on Ferret Music)
