Emotionally charged nu metal sounds like a horrible concept, but Islander made it work on their debut album, 2014’s Violence And Destruction. If there was one criticism, it was that the South Carolina four-piece were swamped by their love for Glassjaw, Deftones and P.O.D.
For its follow-up, the band have clearly strived to outrun their influences, but they still sound unsure of who they want to be.
While its predecessor was a sonically consistent affair, Power Under Control tears out of the blocks like Spotify on shuffle. The opening salvo of tracks are so disparate that by halfway through the album you could have been listening to different bands: downtuned rap metal (Darkness), soaring melodic rock (Bad Guy), rabid hardcore (Green Slime Man) and even twinges of reggae (All We Need). In their defence, Islander can do each of these styles pretty damn well and frontman Mikey Carvajal’s vocals are impressive, but their penchant for genre-hopping has left Power… looking a bit faceless.
