Album Review: Awaken I Am -- Shields & Crowns

With Gold Coast five-piece Awaken I Am the influences have always been clear – The Amity Affliction, Parkway Drive, Dream On Dreamer – but their progressive noodles and highwire lines and vocals have a distinctly clean and glossy treatment washed over them.

That top-notch production makes an immediate impact in tracks like opener, Divisions, and Landslide, where neatly clipped kitwork and smooth vocal tones work their wonders, but there’s many a time where the boys break it up with some crushing guitars and brutal, offbeat riffs in Safe Haven and Capture.