Scare - In the End, Was It Worth It?

Angry Metal Guy 30

Hardcore is usually pretty one-note, a hard-and-fast genre for white young ‘uns to unleash their anti-establishment rage against the machine, and it can be difficult to create anything that contains even a mere smidge of memorability. Scare embodies all the vigor of hardcore but attempts to fuse it with the bitter vinegar of sludge metal, making the sound of being beaten by police batons more like being showered by bricks. In the spirit of hardcore brevity and bleak nihilism, indeed: In the End, Was It Worth It?

Scare embodies what you love or hate about hardcore and nihilism of more extreme styles. Embodying the grindcore brevity in thirty-three minutes in thirteen tracks, Quebecois collective Scare brings the hard-and-fast attack with chuggy riffs, hardcore barks, and wailing solos, recalling a more sludge-inclined version of province-mates Apes. However, while density is certainly there, the sludge influence is less about the swampy soup-bubbling tone-abusers and more about the classic bluesy riff-and-solo approach of Crowbar or Down. While In the End, Was It Worth It? features the hallmarks of an enjoyable hardcore record with a misanthropic tone reminiscent of The Hope Conspiracy, it’s “inconsistent when it matters and consistent when it’s boring” quality makes Scare more of a yawn.

In The End, Was It Worth It? by SCARE

To their credit, Scare manages to fashion an effective blend of riff and solo. When the songwriting is fluid and the track identity secure, it achieves two approaches within this framework: a metallic hardcore darkness that feels as dark and foreboding as its artwork, and a kickass stew of groovy riffs that doesn’t let up. The fusion of chuggy riffs and diminished tremolo picking offers its trademark nihilism alongside creative drumming and blastbeats (“The Black Painting,” “Crowned in Yellow”), while a more sprawling and layered creepy placidity adds punch where it matters most (“Doomynation” 1 and 2, “Jeanne Dark”). Full-throttle riffs that don’t let up are the feature of the second approach, chunky and blazing leads with hardcore progressions giving way to wild solos and throat-shredding vocals (“Thrash Melrose,” “Midnight Ride,” “Reality of Death in the Maze of Hope”). To Scare’s credit, the decision to make In the End, Was It Worth It? less sludge-fucked tonally allows it a fluidity that allows both approaches to work – on paper.

The main problem with In the End, Was It Worth It? is Scare’s awkward songwriting. In spite of song lengths being capped at a very reasonable three-and-a-half minutes, they each nonetheless feel far too long for their own good. Heartfelt ascending major chord progressions shoehorned amid diminished tremolo passages (“Drifted Away,” “Harakiri Ton Industrie”), grindy intensity leading to awkward transitions within brief songs (“Nevermind If It All Explodes, I’ll Die Anyway,” “PMA – Pessimistic Mental Attitude”), excessive repetition (“Harakiri Ton Industrie,” “Jeanne Dark”), and shrieking vocal monotony throughout (variety only appears as growls in the identical two parts of “Doomynation”) are all killjoys in this reckless album. Tracks are also grouped thematically, leading to massive inconsistency: for instance, while “The Black Painting” and “Crowned in Yellow” offer a tastefully dark vibe (that is never addressed again), the hardcore-focused three-song marathon of “Jeanne Dark” to “Turbograine” wears thin way too fast. What’s ultimately frustrating about Scare is that even the best tracks aboard In the End, Was It Worth It? feel only partially formed, with neat riffs vanishing too soon and nothing sticking as a defining moment for that band.

Scare has a lot of good ideas but few solid executions. In the End, Was It Worth It? poses a yearning question and the answers are surprisingly disappointing, with hardcore intensity vanishing abruptly, bluesy sludge feeling halfhearted, and bleak nihilism being communicated only in sporadic moments. Even though the album is brief and track lengths reasonable, it feels far longer and I feel wearier having gone through it. In the End, Was It Worth It? Not really.

Rating: 1.5/5.0
DR: 11 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Self-Release
Websites: scareqc.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/scareqc
Releases Worldwide: February 21st, 2025

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