I’ve tried to think up an intro for this forever, and I can’t do it. So I’m skipping it this time.

A Closing Skyline plays hardcore. They scream, a lot. They use double pedal bass thunderously and copiously. They use guitars that blast your mind with their intensity. But these guitarists are special. They actually have talent beyond power-chorded chug-a-thons.

On a quick glance, I would say that at least 50%, if not more, of this album is instrumental. Hardcore isn’t really known for instrumentals, but ACS actually is more interesting when they are playing instrumentally. This is because their guitarists are masters of melody. They play tons of interesting melodies that fit over the thrash of the drums. Don’t worry, this isn’t pansy hardcore….this is real hardcore. They just have a lot of variation and movement in the guitars, making sure you can never tell what they will do next.

They also eschew the verse/chorus/verse format most of the time, and often don’t play one section of music more than once. If this isn’t enough to intrigue you, then catch this: the guitarists are so talented that they even can play slow pieces with grandeur. The opener “Whitehaven Drive” is a melancholy piece that barely even uses distortion. It never gets loud, and the two guitars and bass intertwine sad melodies for nearly two and a half minutes. It’s an extremely serene song, and if I didn’t know it was by a hardcore band, I wouldn’t be able to tell.

In short, the guitarists for A Closing Skyline are insanely talented, and thusly, they make this a fantastic hardcore CD. I don’t usually like hardcore, but this cd piqued my interest from the second I popped it in. Fans of hardcore will enjoy this breath of life into a dying genre. It’s really that good.