With the passing of time comes the natural progression of any bands’ sound, image and identity – no example is more clear than Within Destruction. With their latest effort Lotus they have exemplified that a change in sound doesn’t mean there’s any sacrifice in quality. Beginning the album with title track, you are presented with a wide array of influences to get your teeth into. Trap beats intersperse heavy riffs and more melodic choruses in an album opener that sets a benchmark of well written heavy music for the remaining 11 songs to match. ‘Toxic’, ‘Nightmare’ and ‘Survival’ all follow suit with well formatted and adequately heavy elements to keep listeners from a broad array of backgrounds satisfied, the latter of the aforementioned three bringing some absolutely dirty guitarwork to the table.
‘Revenge’ is a prime moment of the album – in that it displays that the Slovenian big-hitters are not only able to alter their sound as a band over time, but have mastered the craft. It’s a metalcore rager, structured well and the low tuned guitars give it all the bite it needs to stay heavy. ‘Dying World’ does much of the same, adding a more tame ingredient with the feature of emo-rap pioneer Lil Lotus.
Built on the foundations of significant personal tragedy, pervasive misery, unimaginable pain and the devastating effects of isolation, STAKE’s mercurial new album LOVE, DEATH and DECAY takes you through a grieving and mourning process unlike any other. It serves as a reminder to remember the struggles as the world returns to some semblance of normality. Brutal realism intertwines itself with gothically romantic themes of love and death, as the Belgian quartet look to process the unprecedented chaos that has happened in the last two years.
Having rebranded themselves as STAKE in 2018 (moving away from their cumbersome former band name Steak Number Eight) as a conclusion to Brent Vanneste’s mourning process of losing his brother, the band certainly haven’t left it all in the past, which LOVE, DEATH and DECAY testifies to. Crammed with visceral emotion and frantic, intense riffing and eerily melancholic atmospherics, LOVE, DEATH and DECAY is a monument to the abject misery of modern life. Compared to the band’s previous album Critical Method, which showcased more technical, Mastodon-esque riffing, LOVE, DEATH and DECAY leans into the sonic realms that are reminiscent of a classic Deftones records. There is a significant amount of depth and layering to this album that you can’t possibly begin to comprehend it all in one listen, yet through all of this is the all to familiar sensations of hopelessness and despair.
Slots at prestigious festivals like Glastonbury and high profile support slots showed an artist very much on the ascendancy. Then personal tragedy struck and she withdrew from the music world entirely for years to heal. The end result of that time away is Shame, her debut album proper and an exploration of self as much as it is of the pop landscape. Landing in similar art pop spaces that Hayley Williams explored with Petals For Armor, it refuses to confine itself to those pastures and branches into electropop, rock and soulful R&B across its 12 tracks.
‘Fall Away’ is the understated opener, building from solitary piano to swelling strings and Fable’s own idiosyncratic voice. She doesn’t quite sound like anyone else; there’s moments of grit, as well as soul and deep vulnerability that are all conveyed with an air of self-assurance only earned from deep reflection. ‘Womb’ is similarly subdued while it explores identity as well as a determination to keep going; “relax, it will come / gotta work, get it done” and “asked myself, who are you? / She got up, left the room / that’s the truth” she intones through bridges and choruses. It’s laid-back, underpinned by Fable’s voice that carries soul and strength.
Despite being commonly refereed to as a pop-punk band – often one of the best might we add, and for good reason – The Wonder Years have long graduated from the hallways of this often infantile genre. After summiting the zenith of the pop-punk sound with their 2013 LP The Greatest Generation, the later half of last decade saw the band signing their names within the annuals of emo and alt rock with their 2015 effort No Closer To Heaven and the aforementioned Sister Cities. Yet, despite their forays into such fringe genres, these two records still wonderfully resonated the group’s now famous emotional songwriting and vocalist Dan Campbell’s unmatched poetic lyricism on his unceasing state of ennui. These two records didn’t exactly dethrone the acts that sit atop the pinnacle of the such respective genres, yet they where incredible additions to The Wonder Years’ own unblemished discography and albums that highlighted the ever-maturing sound of the band.
But with that in mind, many questioned where the band was destined to travel next in their journey through the infringe territories of punk. Where they going to continue to travel down the roads of alt rock laid by Sister Cities? The answer couldn’t be further from the truth. The 2020 standalone anxious singles of ‘Out On My Feet’ and ‘Brakeless may have been an indication for things to come – with such tracks being in the key of the jittery pop-punk expressed within their third record Suburbia – but The Hum Goes On Forever seeing the band retread mostly the pop-punk stylings from their youth. This isn’t a full reprisal though; many things have changed since their aforementioned graduation from pop-punk, the most prominent of these being Campbell’s newfound adventure into fatherhood. This, alongside their recent genre dynamism, makes their new effort makes the album a pop-punk record only in sound and presentation. The Hum Goes On Forever is a record created by the considered carefulness that comes with the passing into adulthood and is an album that bares witness to some of the band’s most open revelations yet.
Flogging Molly’s status as one of the pioneering bands, alongside Dropkick Murphys and The Real McKenzies, that put Celtic punk on the map is unquestionable. Unlike their rowdier contemporaries, Flogging Molly have leant more on the folkier side of Celtic punk, and in recent years have employed the beauty and sadness of traditional Irish folk music to bring heart warming and equally soul wrenching songs to the masses. With considerable time between albums due to relentless touring, there is plenty of time for the band to take their time to craft engaging songs that tell stories of people from all walks of life, bringing everyone together through shared experiences and struggles. Anthem is does exactly that.
Whilst the interweaving melodies of the traditional instruments will no doubt fire the imagination, as your mind presents pictures of the working class in the industrialised Irish cities, fighting their way out by any means necessary. With this in mind, Flogging Molly convey a positive message of sticking to your path, remembering your roots and fighting for what you believe in. Anthem, like the majority of Flogging Molly’s back catalogue, is wonderfully descriptive album, the poetic lyrics puts you straight into the heart of Dave King’s observational stories. As with their last album, Life Is Good, the band continue to strip away some of the more raucous and raw punky elements from their sound and venture further into Celtic folk rock. On the rockier songs the band explore traditional sounding melodies and infusing the rock elements with the rhythms of jig and reel music, Anthem will certainly get you dancing in some areas.
The eighth installment from the project is no different, and brings together a fusion of melody, emotion and well oiled production to create a distinct highlight of the band’s career. The record delivers a polished sound that reflects each members individual contributions, and the end result is a smooth amalgamation of some incredibly talented musicians.
The Devil Wears Prada dropped their eight studio album via Solid State Records just a few short days ago, and if you’ve been keeping an eye on any revered publications – you’ll see it’s already causing a stir. Color Decay may not be the band’s heaviest endeavor, but there is no denying that they’ve pleased a wide demographic with the record’s release. It’s a good thing too when reflecting on the ensemble’s past releases, as a huge portion of their discography has been placed on a pedestal of critical acclaim – including the 2009 full length With Roots Above & Branches Below being rated one of the top 5 metalcore albums of all time via a poll conducted by Revolver.
Clearly designed for larger venues, Color Decay has a distinct ‘stadium rock’ touch throughout. Whilst the record’s introduction, ‘Exhibition’ has its strengths, there is no doubt in our mind that what was eventually chosen as the fourth track should have definitely been the opener. Realistically ‘Noise’ is also one of the highlights of the album in its entirety – it has everything you’d want in a The Devil Wears Prada track, in addition to that extra mile. When entering the recording process shortly following the release of Zombie II – the band took to remote locations to set to work on their latest addition, with keys player Jonathan Gering taking the reins as producer. It definitely sets minds racing as to exactly how much Jons influence has had over the end product, but regardless of measure the album has been a roaring success among fans old and new.
