SPIN

5

• SPIN Rating:5 of 10

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Release Date: August 23, 2011
Label: DGC/Interscope

Miami quartet Black Tide party at the funeral parlor where metalcore, thrash, and skull-shaped belt buckles converge. Though it attempts a Guns N' Roses/Iron Maiden hybrid, second album Post Mortem comes off like a latecomer to the Vampirecore class of 2005 reunion (Avenged Sevenfold, Funeral for a Friend, Bullet for My Valentine), minus the soaring hooks and galloping tempos. There are, however, unique nods to the band's Latin-?American heritage -- an acoustic flourish here, a manic, Mars Volta–style polyrhythmic breakdown there -- but they're too ?few and far between.