Artist: Secrets 

Album: The Ascent
Genre: Post-hardcore/screamo
Label: Velocity/Rise Records

Considering they apparently formed just over a year ago, San Diego five-piece Secrets display an impressive togetherness and articulate sound on this debut album. The Ascent is a fiery and memorable listen, ably combining a heavy, ferocious guitar sound with a lighter touch. It isn’t exactly an original take on the post-hardcore genre and can get a little carried away on occasion, but it remains a mostly worthy effort and makes for stirring listening.

The band’s key strength also tends to be their weakness. They have a clear inventive side and introduce a softer, more luminous aspect to most of their songs by way of careful piano lines and cleaner vocals. This move is, for the most part, rewarding and gives the songs an added veneer of grace and elegance. However, at times the band don’t quite manage to balance these decorative elements with heavier instruments and some songs sound lost, derivative, and even repetitious. It’s a relatively minor flaw but one that could do with some attention in the future.

Album opener, “Genesis,” cuts in with a nicely faded and discordant tone. It’s very atmospheric and somewhat ambivalent in tone, with raw shards of guitar hovering ominously beneath the jarring vocals. The cleaner singing is composed and well-judged, managing to create a firm presence without distracting from the heavier elements of the song. “The Oath” follows this with a more rhythmic approach and sacrifices the incisive atmosphere. The guitars aren’t quite as menacing as before and suit a faster tempo, spurring quick verses and a brash vocal line that sounds as though it’s been ripped from a distant netherworld. The chorus, however, is messy – the introduction of keys doesn’t blend well enough with the music and it sounds something like a dodgy remix. “Somewhere in Hiding” is a surprising listen, with an almost pop-like vocal line and very measured instruments. There’s nothing of the raw energy that drove the two preceding tracks and it focuses instead on class and eloquence. This makes it seem unusual – it’s very catchy, the sudden freshness of the sound letting it stand out – but also astonishingly bland considering the fierce intent evidenced in the first two songs.

“The Heartless Part” spices up a blasé chugging riff with rolling, climactic drums and a return to dizzying vocal heights. This vocal onslaught makes for anarchy at first but the track redeems itself by unleashing a delicate, meandering piano line and bringing this closer to the fore in a thoughtful epilogue. This highlights an ongoing, veiled air of poignancy that seems to pulsate throughout the record, adding some depth and meaning even to their harsher efforts. “40 Below” is reckless and marauding before dramatically switching to airy lightness in the chorus, thereby rendering the song a touch samey and derivative of earlier tracks.

“Melodies” takes, perhaps unsurprisingly, a more melodious approach. The sound is rather odd with an opening verse like a pop song in disguise. The band fortifies this with some menacing riffs immediately thereafter, though there remains a definite sense of something more frivolous and unassuming trying to shed its darker clothing. The ongoing contrast between luminous highs and pounding lows is intriguing, if not always convincing, and lives up to the ambivalent air fostered at the beginning of the record.

“The Best You Can’t Be” is a more overtly personal track and very bitter and caustic. That said, it doesn’t quite conjure the cutting animosity you’d expect. Lyrically it’s a lot more affecting but overall, it’s actually something of a template piece when compared with the other tracks. “Blindside” throws this streamlined approach to the wind and makes a heavy impact; a vociferous comedown after the unguarded intimacy of the previous track. The heavier parts are sluggish but invigorating, offset by a resurgent chorus that provides the token softer touch. “The Hardest Part” and “You Look Good In Plastic” don’t make much of an impact, but title (and final) track “The Ascent” is more finely tuned and triumphant. Both lyrically and musically, it’s resolute and defined with a very sharp vocal interplay in the second verse. Structurally, it uses the piano well to keep the song focused and gives the wispy threads of emotion that have lingered throughout the album some real life. It makes for a firm and abrasive ending and leaves the listener eager for more.

There is a consistent air of indecision to The Ascent that costs it a few points, as its frequent shapeshifting doesn’t always flatter the end result. It is nonetheless a hearty and ambitious effort and a compelling listen, strikingly good at best and entertaining even at worst. It might seem a bit mopey for some fans of the genre, but it’s a labour of love that at least stands out from the pack.

SCORE: 7/10
Review written by Grace Duffy

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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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