One-Way Mirror – “Capture” [Album Review]

One-Way Mirror are a French rock quintet who, if they’re to be believed, are about to set off a revolution in the rock world with the release of Capture, their new twelve track album. Well, one listen to Capture and it saddens me to say there will be no rock revolution come release date – unless you’ve had your head under a stone for the last ten years and everything from In Flames to Sonic Syndicate to Taproot has passed you by.

Capture is an album that blends the nu-metal scene of the ’00s with the crunchy polished sound of the European metal scene and throws in a dash of grunge just to flavour the whole thing. The end result is something that has a few decent moments like the powerful “The Clock Is Ticking” but is, on the whole, fairly generic. Listen to any track on the album and you can pick out any number of moments that you’ll have heard on any number of records by Deftones, In Flames, Taproot, Spineshank, Alice In Chains etc. etc. It’s not that Capture is a bad record, it’s not, but to call it revolutionary is quite a bold statement and one that the material, for the best part, doesn’t live up to.

So, where next for One-Way Mirror? Well, having supported a list of bands that reads like a Who’s Who of modern metal, one listen to the rap-rock-metal of “Fuck Your Autotune” will have you wondering if, with the rock revolution boat having left the dock a few years ago, it’s going to be a case of always the bridesmaid never the bride for these French rock revolutionaries?

Track Listing:

01. Stinkin’ Of Gold
02. Neglected Skies
03. The Clock Is Ticking
04. Speculations
05. Warnings
06. Confusion Core
07. Cliffs
08. Screenshot
09. Lady Marmalade
10. Fuck Your Autotune
11. Tomorrow Comes Fast
12. We Love To Complain

Run Time: 51:23
Release Date: January 27, 2015

Check out the ‘Capture’ album teaser