Cry Of The Afflicted

This album starts off with a solid introductory track that has a nice balance of metal influences in the drumming and guitar work, coupled with strong melodies and harmony. After listening for about five minutes you might get the impression that this Story of the Year sound-alike band will continue to plagiarise for the duration of The Unveiling, and you wouldn’t be wrong. "The Influence of False Pretense” showcases this band at their best, with a pretty gnarly guitar intro and double bass action over a muted rhythm guitar line. It also has clean vocals with a chorus meant to break the radio waves. This disc is the type of thing that would be out of your CD tray within a week or neglected almost immediately on iTunes. Cry of the Afflicted is a name better suited to an epic metal band, one that battles dragons, orcs or spectres on the ultimate battlefield, with a backdrop of unassailable mountains and castles, possibly in Middle-Earth, not a screamo band that came about five years too late.