When Capra burst onto the Hardcore scene back in 2021 with their debut album, In Transmission, they displayed whole-heartedly, what the best things are about the subgenre today. Riffs that make you want to start chaos wherever you go, and the emotive vocals from Crow Lotus, made Capra one of the stand-out newcomers in 2021.
For a debut album so strong, it’d be hard for anyone to follow up and not hit the dreaded sophomore slump. It seems however, the band are raring to go and are taking every opportunity to take things up a notch. Focusing more on breakdowns and vocals, their second album Errors (Metal Blade Records / Blacklight Media) is a further step up for the band.
“I knew that I wanted it to pick up where the first album left off” states Lotus, in regards to the opening song. “CHSF” does exactly that, If played back to back with In Transmission’s “Samuraiah Carey”, the music continues on as if made together. The heavy guitars, drums storm into light as Lotus crashes into the show. The frenetic riffs take centre stage, it’s impossible to have a bob to your head and, for your opening track to make an impression, you cannot get much better than “CHSF” channeling the best elements of the first album and the best elements hardcore punk, and honing it into 2 and a half minutes of unbridled emotive anger.
The album doesn’t get further than the third track before the band have already fulfilled their aforementioned aims for the album in “Silana”, opening the song by bellowing down the mic “Loyalty, is a myth, it’s unreal, it’s a fallacy” before launching themselves headfirst into the maelstrom of this heavy track. The song puts your mind into a small DIY venue, no barriers, half the crowd is shouting back the poignant, emotionally charged words at the band, the rest of the crowd can only be described as being a whirlwind of energy. This is the power that “Silana” will wreak on the live circuit. Elements from the likes of Petrol Girls and the nineties hardcore and metalcore scenes.
It is undeniable that Capra have brought on a whole range of new sounds to their hardcore mix. No other song on the album encapsulates this more than “Human Commodity”, with riffs that could sound like they could fit alongside the discographies of an Every Time I Die or The Dillinger Escape Plan. This combined with the guest vocals from none other than Walls of Jericho’s Candace Kucsulain-Puopolo brings their album to a whole new level; the metal elements making their sound so much more vicious.
Closing track “Nora” changes up the influences, flipping their previously cemented sound on its head, as the band forego the more lo-fi raw sounds, replacing them with overly reverberated guitar effects, similar to those used by Loathe on I Let It In And It Took Everything, adding a shoegaze element to their repertoire, as the instruments flood into the previous empty space as Lotus barks emotional passages down the microphone. Some keys can be heard, contrasting massively with the fast pace of the guitars and drums. This contrast of instrumentation creates an eye-of-the-storm atmosphere and by the end of the song; it almost becomes reminiscent of the likes of big-hitters Rolo Tomassi and Oathbreaker, teasing what may be the next foray come their next album.
It doesn’t really need to be said, but the sophomore slump is clearly not an issue for this band. Honing in on what made In Transmission tick, and then exemplifying these traits as well as bringing in experimental new sounds and new genres into the mix has shown Capra to be a band who will take the risks, and make them work for them.
Errors is not only great on its own merit, but sets things up as their magnum opus is very much on the immediate horizon.
Buy the album here:
https://capraband.bandcamp.com/album/errors
8 / 10
CHARLIE HILL