Ark of the Covenant - Seperation

Every once in a while a record comes out and I get all old man and yell at the damn kids to get off my lawn and take their skinny jeans, flat billed baseball hats, and deathcore elsewhere.

Ark of the Covenant’s Strike Fist Records debut ep, Separation, is one such record.

It's not a terrible ep. But I feel like there are a lot of things going on. The Introduction (that's the songs name) is straight up Deathcore in the vain of Emmure or the Acacia Strain. The Book of Life is ok, until we hit the "hook", which is only awful because of the guitar squeals. Not sure why these are popular. And then halfway through the song, our ears are assaulted with a terrible, high pitched vocal. I understand what they were going for but Ark of the Covenant just can't pull it off.

All Inhabitants of the Earth is a solid song. The super low pitched growl is a minor annoyance but it doesn't kill the track like the high pitch screams do on The Book of Life. The clean vocals are just subtle enough to not take away from the track, although they do come out of left field and make you do a double take. Locusts Look Like Horses is the best track on the album. While there's nothing groundbreaking, it's the most solid and straight forward track on the album.

Separated ends the record, and it's a head scratcher. A low key, mostly spoken word track. It's a nice worshipful moment at the end of the album, but it again just seems to come out of nowhere.

It's not my favorite record Facedown/Strike First has put out in the last two years but you can hear the potential that's there. Some more focus and Ark of the Covenant could be a great band.