Momentum is a melodic hardcore band from the UK that writes music with a message. Whetting Occam's Razor is a full length that explores many different ideas with smart lyrics. Front man Alex (of Light Bearer and formerly Fall of Efrafa) writes with reason and intent combined with powerful music. At times, this album comes together to be something special.
The lyrics are both intelligent and complex and cover many issues: the origin of our species, animal liberation, and false gods are all explored with a general theme of misanthropy. The record also asks us to start living outside our small world, suburban bedroom, limited point of view. It was written to make you think and is accented with the sound clips throughout. If approached with a proper mentality, the music will do a beautiful job of accomplishing that.
However, I have said this before and will continue to do so: power is a very important thing with melodic hardcore. While Whetting Occam's Razor has its moments, it does not retain it throughout the release. Often times there are parts that are way too drawn out that break up the pacing so much that the listener loses interest–while a majority of the songs are under 4 minutes, they seem to feel like they're much longer. However, the strong vocals are a saving grace and they help keep the needed energy where it should be.
The first track, "Prelude," explodes with power and starts the album off on a good note. However, the album is plagued with lack of progression and while this introduction is very enticing, the more the listener invests in it the more letdown they will feel. The track "kin" is also able to stand out because of the message of animal liberation behind it. The lyrics convey strong points consistently throughout the album: for me, "kin" really hits home by illustrating how inhumane animal testing is and why it should be stopped.
Whetting Occam's Razor was not a disappointment for me. Being new to Momentum's material, I really did not know what to expect. The whole "music written with a message" thing really pulls this record out of mediocrity as it is done well. However, musically the listener is often lost in the endless repetition but, if you can find comfort in this, there are great things to be found here.
