Artist: It Prevails
Album: Stroma
Genre: Metalcore/Post-Hardcore
Label: Mediaskare Records

When I first heard of It Prevails, it was during the rise of the new wave of melodic metalcore; a wave of music that was, at the time, undeniably lead by August Burns Red, and being a stubborn, pretentious music fan back then, I was fully convinced that August Burns Red would always lead the way, and while some of the other bands were good, there wasn’t really any reason for them to exist, because they simply couldn’t ever stack up to the scene leaders; August Burns Red. Looking back, I honestly can’t think of any legitimate reason why I thought this was the undeniable truth, perhaps it was because of that really cool riff from “Composure”, who knows, but that’s what I thought. Truth be told, I didn’t even really give the other bands much of a chance, I watched a music video or two, sort of paid attention, and then resigned that my opinion was, once again, flawlessly correct.

Over the past few years though, that little re-emerging niche of metal has taken on a life of it’s own, and dozens more bands with diverging styles have emerged to help it grow to new heights. And as the scene grew, so did the bands that had been there since the start, and I was, of course, proven wrong. Now this comes down to personal opinion, but ABR are no longer the undisputed leaders of the melodic metalcore scene, there are so many bands out there that continue to redefine it with every new release; bands that I had initially discounted as a flash in the pan like Texas In July, and more specifically, It Prevails. That being said, for all I know, my old opinion could have been correct, for the most part, It Prevails is a completely different band today than they were back when I originally passed judgement on them. Their list of previous members is twice as long as the list of current members, but on their newest release, Stroma, they are very nearly back to their original roster, save for guitarist Chris Tsanjoures. But with this newest release, my ill-informed opinions of their past efforts are largely irrelevant..

This is one of those moments where I find myself legitimately disappointed that I had skipped out on this band in the past, I developed a false idea of the legitimacy of the band, and then discounted them, and that was quite a mistake. When this album came across my desk, I was simply appalled that I hadn’t gotten around to getting into this band years and years ago; I was cheating myself out of something really impressive. It Prevails are not just another ABR-style band by any means, in fact, even comparing the two isn’t really fair. It Prevails adds some seriously impressive, and fairly unconventional post-hardcore elements to their music. Despite their turbulent past, and ever-shuffling member roster, they came together to create an album that really earns them a spot at the top of the scene. Strictly speaking, the only way this album disappoints is with the slightly below average recording quality, but really, that raw sound is a staple of the post-hardcore bands of days past, and it’s nice to hear that style again, whether it was intentional or not. Songs like “Shine Through” and “What You’ve Been Searching For” are perfect examples of the brilliantly blended metalcore and post-hardcore, excellent clean vocals, raw guitars, with driving rhythms, polarizing dymanics, and superb screams; a blend that defines the whole album, and creates an excellent overall tone.

Stroma is one of those very rare albums that is not only good enough to make me keep the album on a fairly constant rotation today, but it’s also enough to make me regret not giving this band the chance they deserved years ago. I’m definitely going to be digging into the old It Prevails discography to find out if the rest of their releases are anywhere nearly as impressive as Stroma. But regardless of how those albums turn out, I think I’ve found myself a new metalcore obsession. This is most certainly not an album to miss out on.

SCORE: 9/10
Reviewed by: Mike Hogan

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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