A 'Plea' for originality

There's not much to say concerning innovation in metal these days, at least not without a look of slight disdain. Ask any kid with half-inch gauges about good modern heavy-metal bands, and he'll likely use his middle finger to point to his Whitechapel T-shirt or his Attack Attack! wristband.

It seems that the rich dynamic that existed in metal a few years ago has become somewhat polarized. On one side sits the wrist-breaking rhythms of The Black Dhalia Murder and Job for a Cowboy, and in the other corner sits the ambiguously named "djent," which features spastic time signatures and low guitar strings that ring like trampoline vinyl.

Enter Nashville quartet A Plea for Purging, an oddball of sorts in the hardcore community. With their fourth full-length release, The Life and Death of a Plea for Purging, the group puts a foot down for tonal diversity but still mixes in the most clichéd elements of modern day metal.

Plea has undergone many changes since their third full-length release, 2010's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Since the departure of guitarist Tyler Wilson in late 2010, the group has taken a groove-driven approach to riff writing, a rather stale move in a genre growing far too void of melodic complexity. Their earlier work, while harmonically lush, kept from over-embellishing technicality.

Bands like Periphery and Tesseract perpetuate the trend of banging away on the low string to stop-start rhythms, and Life and Death, while a natural break from Plea's former style, tends to ride the same mundane formula of pounding breakdowns and low string bends. Key examples are "The Life" and "Heart of a Child," which, at times, sound like carbon copies of each another.

The most obvious change comes in the form of now co-vocalist Blake Martin. Besides lending backup vocal support, Martin's clean vocals shine on tracks like "Skin & Bones" and "Hell At Our Backs," giving the songs an even warmer feel while lending a refreshing contrast to lead vocalist Andy Atkins.

It is in this respect that Plea seems to have truly progressed. While Life and Death lacks the ferocity of Marriage or Depravity, it does so in the spirit of change. Songs that start out giving the impression of the dreaded "ballad" turn out to be pleasant songs in their own right, not just "good for a metal band."

Despite the positive aspects of the record, for a band like Plea, whose earlier work was so inventive, this seems like a step backwards. Sure, "The Setting Sun" and "Hands and Feet" are notable tracks, but in a genre where originality is sparking few and far between, it's as if innovation has been swept under the rug. Razor sharp riffs and musical intricacy has been replaced by groovy, head-bobbing, mediocrity.

Plea should be commended for their strides at creating something groundbreaking. Their new work is interesting and different, but if the genre is to survive it will need more than glitch beats and recycled riffs. It seems, for the time being at least, that the plea for true innovation remains unheard.