Yesterday, a monster was born. And small-town melodic metalcore band Counterparts is the unit that gave birth to it during their record release show alongside surging prog/metalcore kids and labelmates I Am Committing A Sin. The monster in question is called “Prophets,” and it’s the kind of album that will spoil your senses in the most extreme of ways. Think back to the first time you heard bands like Shai Hulud, It Prevails, For The Fallen Dreams, Misery Signals, Bury Your Dead, and The Ghost Inside and the sheer surge of life that you felt coursing through your mortal coil. First impressions like these are just as rare as the artists and albums that trigger them. What you’re getting with “Prophets” is an expertly-crafted batch of multi-faceted, heartfelt anthems to accompany you on your life path, whatever it may be. This group of fine young men from Hamilton, Ontario burst out the gate with “Prophets” and make a compelling statement to be taken as serious as the styles forerunners. One of the ways that Counterparts in its current form may even outdo their idols is in upper-tier instrumentality across the board. Whether we’re talking about drum-wizard Ryan Juntilla making each song sound like it’s riding on a bed of marble, Alex and Jesse’s riffs, Eric’s metronomic basslines, or Brendan Murphy’s fervent delivery, Counterparts literally fire on all pistons at nearly all times. Technically, they bring to mind a less Swedish-influenced but equally complex Parkway Drive, thus overstepping the leaders of their genre in one mere album. Guess this must be the future then; an era in which a band can claim top-dog status from the outset. Granted though, it is by no means within the range of most bands’ capabilities and imagination to assemble such an album as “Prophets” in one, clean swipe as Counterparts have done. While surely the band must by default have practiced, written, and performed with scarily regimented regularity, there certainly is a certain advantage here, raw talent-wise.Brendan’s vocals, decidedly more traditional hardcore than death metal in nature, are arguably a cleaner fit for Counterparts’ unique brand of urgent technical old-school hardcore than the vocals of Parkway Drive’s versatile and yet vital frontman Winston McCall are to them. And that’s keeping aside the fact that Australia’s Parkway Drive released one of the most dynamic modern/classic hybrid metalcore records ever in their 2007 opus “Horizons.” “Prophets,” however,” is not as determined an album to be the most metallic thing out there, which likely comes as a result of them being a hardcore band underneath all the breakneck thrash offerings, beatdown breaks, gang vocals, and tense harmonizing. Ideally these hardcore roots, if planted firmly enough, will reap future fruit in the form of continual releases of new music from these metalcore prodigies. Not since either Ignorance Never Settles and their 1997 landmark LP “Cycles of Consumption,” Day of Mourning’s recently reissued “Your Future’s End”, or Grade’s early split LP with Believe, has an Ontario band made such a convincing statement that they are ready to break out onto the international scene as Counterparts do. Their shows are likely as cathartic experiences for kids upfront as they are for the band themselves. It merits mention that Verona Records, the label with enough brains to pick up on these future legends, is run by Silverstein singer Shane Told, a man who can now claim the title of coveted A&R if he so desires. Seeing Canadian talent such as Counterparts handled by other Canadians from within Canada must be an effectual, intimate, and ultimately homegrown experience that many bands south of the border might not have similar experiences to reflect upon.