With so many groups currently trying their hand at hardcore and metalcore it's a wonder how any band can hope to make a name for themselves these days. Seemingly undeterred by the abundance of those already infesting this intersection of the metal spectrum, Anterrabae have stepped up with their Triple Crown backed offering, "Shakedown Tonight"; a fiery blast of modern hardcore that sees them relying on snarling vocals, an occasional melody and generally off-kilter song arrangements to express themselves.
Similar in turn to bands like Every Time I Die or The Bled, Anterrabae go through the motions of progressive modern hardcore with metal influences. Erratically paced, determined and consistently edgy, they avoid the standard verse, chorus, breakdown route and instead take up the quickly becoming standard mixed up verse, bridge, breakdown, chorus, etc. route. When on point the group are quite empowering and do a considerable amount of damage with some thickly laden metal meets hardcore violence. But this isn't their only plan of attack as they also throw in some clean vocals and a downtempo melodic part here and there to keep things dynamic; though for the most part you can expect a rigidly vehement affair.
Still, for all its strengths this album can leave a lot to be desired. The fact is, while Anterrabae are a great band by all means, this musical territory has been traversed too much recently to really make them sound inherently recognizable. Perhaps if they let some of their more experimental moments flourish rather than quickly switch through them they could retain more of an identity. But as it stands they just wind up feeling claustrophobic and vaguely familiar. This isn't just a problem for only Anterrabae however, but a widespread problem for the bulk of bands out there playing music in this vein. There's only so much that can be done in this format without taking any big risks. There's no question that bands can still put out a good record by sticking to what is for the most part now commonplace, but only the bands who truly go out on a limb and really mix things up will rise above the pack.