Scars For You To Remember (Fearless Records) is the third full-length album from a Philadelphia-based five-piece that has created an engaging slice of industrialized post-hardcore, that will find a willing audience from fans of Code Orange and the like. Varials spent six weeks together holed up in a remote mountain house writing, before locking down in the studio and recording with producer Jeff McKinnon (Broken Youth / Lasciate).
Not long after sitting down with the self-titled release (M-Theory Audio) from Living Wreckage, it becomes abundantly clear that metallic, dazzling and thumping guitars take center stage.Continue reading
Over the past sixteen years since their debut, Dear Love, The Devil Wears Prada has been one of the most consistent bands in metalcore releasing seven albums over the past decade and a half. It’s not unfounded to say the band has become one of the leading stalwarts of the subgenre. Color Decay (Solid State) is the band’s eighth album, and from the opening singles released earlier in the year, it was already clear that the band is continuing on their killer album streak.
Having formed in Buffalo, New York only two years ago in the midst of the pandemic, metalcore quartet Until I Wake have rapidly managed to create a name for themselves in a style that some are beginning to consider outdated. Disregarding that entirely, the band signed to the prestigious Fearless Records and made their debut album Inside My Head, putting the sound that they genuinely love ahead of following new trends. Continue reading
It’s the age-old debate that has probably led to more physical altercations than any other: should [insert band name] continue churning out similar-sounding material, or are they better off taking risks and testing the waters? Oftentimes, at least in personal encounters, the consensus seems to be: that if a band changes anything about their sound, it’s to their detriment and immediately alienates a specific pocket of fans.Continue reading
Following on from two initial releases (including the particularly realised for the time Hikari), Oceans Ate Alaska in 2017 were a young band who had quickly shown huge levels of promise for bigger things to come. So, the fact the band had not followed up quickly (global pandemic of course not helping matters) feels somewhat surprising considering the momentum that was behind them. Continue reading
I Prevail, when they revealed themselves to the world with their breakout Taylor Swift cover, could only be described as bursting onto the scene. Since then the post-hardcore group has become one of the most exciting bands out today. Smashing out more hits in two albums than some bands accomplish in their whole career. In their last release Trauma, the band delved into different external influences bringing rapping into their songwriting, will True Power carry on this trend?
If you know your old sayings, it is considered something akin to poor taste to judge a book by its cover. Yet, if you apply twisted logic and judge the new Norma Jean album by its song titles… well, you might just be onto something and assume the Atlantan metalcore mainstays took the Timewave Zero route Blood Incantation trekked through, while remaining heavy and fierce. Continue reading
In lieu of releasing a full-length album in one fell swoop, Oceans instead decided to divide their eight tracks into a pair of EPs – one released in early 2022 and the other six months later. That second mini-record – Hell Is Where The Heart Is: Longing (Nuclear Blast) – features four straightforward post-metal compositions, and follows the trail blazed by, Hell Is Where The Heart Is: Love. Continue reading
I like a good challenge. Every so often, I fire up my ol’ NES and give Battletoads another go. I don’t think I will ever complete the hoverbike level but I still manage to have a good time. So when my editor suggested I review the new album by Dance Gavin Dance, a band that is far outside my usual fare of extreme metal, I happily accepted the challenge.
I must be a sadist.Continue reading