Metalcore tends to be a genre that gets major amounts of criticism compared to others, mostly because of generic breakdowns, similar generic sounds, and overused clean vocals. For the Ohiobased metalcore group, My Ticket Home, this would lead to most people hating their debut, To Create a Cure. The reason for that is that there is the same amount of screamed and clean vocals, which would turn a lot of people away from the album. Though, this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad or generic, and it certainly doesn’t ruin the album. In fact, I thought the clean vocals were the saving grace of this album.
Most of the songs on this album, I admit, do sound similar to each other. It starts out with one of the arguably stronger track “A New Breed”. This track showcases most of what the band has to offer, good musicianship, acceptable screams, and well above average clean vocals. The thing I love the most about them is the fact that they seem to use less auto-tune than most metalcore and the voice is actually deep. I liked almost every song, with the exception being “Dark Days”. It was an awkward track that sounded pretty monotonous. The monotone sound is the main issue I have with the screamed vocals; they show almost no difference or range except for a small change in range to go deeper.
“The Truth Changes If We Both Lie” showcases some of the best vocals on the album. This track probably won’t be getting many fans due to the absence of screamed vocals, but that’s what drew me to it. “Beyond” isn’t very good vocally, but the instruments really shine on this track. This track and the following track, “Motion Sickness”, showcase most of the diversity on this album, which means different sounding instruments and a spoken word introduction. “A Thief of One, a Thief of Many” has very cleverly used vocals that make it a definite highlight for almost any listener. Close to the end of To Create a Cure, we get to the two best tracks, “The Dream Code” and “Fear Complex”.
“The Dream Code” showcases another good vocal performance with musical diversity compared to most metalcore. “Fear Complex” has a very odd intro that leads to the best vocal performance in terms of screamed and clean vocals. It provides for a great exit track and leaves the listener satisfied to hear that the band saved the best for last. The way the track transitions from the screamed to clean vocals really helps it shine and the clean vocals are phenomenal. These two tracks saved the album from being “just another metalcore album”.
My Ticket Home definitely has talent; they haven’t mastered how to use it yet. Songs like “Fear Complex” show just how much potential they have of creating a great metalcore record that won’t bore people with being generic. Personally, I loved this album, and thought it was above most metalcore bands. To Create a Cure isn’t bad by any means and definitely has its moments, those moments at the beginning are just sometimes lost in the middle before showing up again in the end.
3.5/5
