Knocked Loose Are here to pummel your ears into submission.  On the Kentucky based metalcore/hardcore bands sophomore album, they legitimately don’t let up one bit.

Belleville is a solid start.  Brilliantly heavy, with riffs stacked on riffs – and a vocal delivery that is intense and urgent.  Trapped in the Grasp of a Memory features that same vocal style, but musically it’s less intense, and more focused.

A Serpents Touch features a guest appearance from Dying Wish’s Emma Boster, and her guttural roars really add a different element to the Knocked Loose sound.  This track is very weighty, those roars coupled with the grinding riffs make this a highlight.

By the Grave opens with some ominous and sinister sounding guitar work, before unleashing to become a crushingly heavy track.  Frontman, Bryan Garris really puts his vocal chords to the test here – yelling and screaming in a fashion that would make most people’s throats bleed.

In the Walls is heavy, but in that slow and grinding way.  Guided by the Moon is a more subdued affair – in every way except the vocals, which are just as severe as ever.  Mistakes Like Fractures follows that same pattern – slow, almost doomy riffs, with the urgency coming from Garris’ vocal.

Forget Your Name features Keith Buckley of Every Time I Die fame, and his inclusion here is the icing on the cake to a track that was already a standout.  Bulldozing riffs are the key to this song.

Road 23 and ..And Still I Wander South both fit well within the overall context of the album, with Wander being the better of the two, while Denied By Fate is a great co-mingling of hardcore, thrash and metalcore elements.

Closing out the record is Misguided Son, and here we have the most different of all the album tracks. I love the line “I can’t be better if I pull myself down with you”.

Knocked Loose have delivered an emotional and honest album in A Different Shade of Blue.   A familiar sound, made up of influences that we all know and love, full of massive riffs and decent break downs.  It’s well worth a listen.

7/10

Review by Shayne McGowan.