Running With The Hurricane is the third full-length record from Melbourne power-emo trio Camp Cope. Made up of Georgia Maq, Kelly-Dawn Hellmrich and Sarah Thompson, the album cites what happens after chaos hits; when you’ve walked through the fire and come out stronger, calmer and happier than ever before. The band’s last album, 2018’s How To Socialise And Make Friends, put them on the map though now they find themselves in different professional and personal circumstances and it shows.
In the making since late 2019 has given the trio the time to learn and understand their craft, to reflect and consider the album during its creation. Themes of growth, change, positivity and peace are all present and sonically it is clear that the trio are feeing this too. An earnest and refreshing listen throughout with moments of beauty and impressive vocals, lyrics and vocal harmonies throughout.
Opener ‘Caroline’ sets the tone with it’s simple meandering guitar riffs that uses verse structures to build it’s instrumental inclusion whilst Maq tells a raw and open story of reflection. The consecutive title track reflects on previous romances, the intricacies of love and having more self-confidence in the future whilst also considering how to pull yourself out of future holes these feelings get you into. “There’s no other way to go, the only way out is up” Maq repeats throughout the chorus whilst brooding basslines and subtle harmonies complete the backdrop.
With their first album Debt, they showed a love of blackened, death metal infused grind that was furious, extreme and to the point; with its followup, they’ve taken a similar tack but the talents of new members Sam Trenchard (drums) and Simon Walker (bass), who coalesced around original founding member Dan Couch (guitar/vocals), helped Couch expand on his vision for the band.
Envisaged as being simply more of everything, that meant bringing in more riffs, more aggression but also dialling up the atmospheric and noise elements that, while present on Debt, were more in the background. With Caged In Gold, all these elements are indeed turned up, but they’re not overwhelming – at least, no more than is already by design with such a visceral, vitriolic album. Even the band name itself embodies their sound; defeat, despair, misery – hopelessness and raging at the dying of the light. Caged In Gold takes aim at materialism, consumerism and deceit; such as the way in which we are conditioned into believing we must always have more, getting trapped into an endless cycle of buying, getting some small gratification, then once more chasing that high by buying more and more. By the time we realise we’ve gone too far and that we’re trapped, it’s too late.
Following on from their 2016 release Where Shadows Forever Reign, Dark Funeral have come back stronger and more ferocious than ever on this year’s release, We Are The Apokalypse. Whilst the line-up remains almost unchanged since their last album, the addition of drummer Jalomaah brings a whole new dynamic to the band, one that may yet prove to be a defining moment in their catalogue.
Right from the get go We Are The Apokalypse is an audio assault, its relentless, punishing black metal, brimming with all the usual traits. Corpse Paint? Check. Spikes? Check. Tremolos, blast beats and satanic imagery? Check, check and check. Rest assured though that this is no mere black metal by numbers parody, this is an album that breaks away from all expectations, exploring new ideas and compositions. Whilst opener ‘Nightfall’ may well begin where the last album left off, front man Heljarmadr’s howls in the chorus make for something much more memorable that will inevitably go down a storm in a live setting.
Following 2019’s Soulmade, the German quartet’s fourth album has ten tracks of traditional metalcore. Blending sharp metal riffs with melodic electronics to represent the duality of not only a genre but of the human mind.
“Prepare for war” Nico Schiesewitz growls with vigour in the opening ‘Break The Silence’. The intro for the track fills us with anticipation as Breathe Atlantis swell into a filthy riff. Schiesewitz’s clean verses allow the frontman to express the realities of being trapped by mental affliction. “I will break the silence” the singer claims as the instrumentals wind down. We wait for the explosion into a chorus so are thrown through a loop when the song slows further still, grinding any remaining momentum to a halt. ‘Break The Silence’ picks up again with subtle melodies from Jan Euler’s guitar, leading into a scream driven bridge. The breakdown we’re treated to is a perfect example of Lasse Weigang (bass) and Silas Fischer’s (drums) ability to craft a huge metalcore sound.
As has become tradition on February 14th, DBoy celebrated the anniversaries of their two previous LPs Prove Your Love (Live In Belem) and “the record that not even a global pandemic could erase”, 2020’s New Records In Human Power, with the release of their new four track EP Post Modern Trash.
Whilst opening and closing songs ‘Chinese Restaurants’ and ‘Suburban Bones’ are straight to the point lessons in blustering, garage punk ‘n’ roll, lyrics such as “you don’t understand the tongue in tongue in cheek” or “you die in your sleep every Sunday morning” leave interpretation entirely open to the listener – answers on a postcard please. ‘Southern Drawl sees the band take a step away from the one to two-minute-long ragers and unlike its predecessor New Records… which saw twelve tracks spread out over just nineteen minutes, Post Modern Trash only consists of only four tracks clocking in at approximately eleven minutes.
Taken from the name of an Ice Cube b-side, Skin brings theOGM and Yeti Bones together for 12 tracks of a high-octane fusion of hip-hop and punk rock. In true punk rock fashion, Ho99o9 recruited Travis Barker (Blink-182) to pull double duty for drums and production value. Following this vein, Skin features collaborations with some of Ho99o9’s biggest influences and supporters.
Before introducing some of those collaborations Ho99o9 take the time to give us the lay of the land themselves. Straight out the gate, ‘Nuge Snight’ has us on edge with uncomfortable cracking and feedback. As soon as the vocals come in, it becomes apparent we are in for a wild ride of anger and displeasure. The delivery is full of spite. Even when ‘Nuge Snight’ slows for what could be construed as a chorus, aggression is never far behind. If an opening track is a litmus test for the record ahead, the acidity of this sample is off the charts.
The acid corrodes into ‘Battery Not Included’. It begins with a deliciously ironic spoken word tirade against the use of “push button drum machines”. While it may smack of some metal purists in this day and age, ‘Battery Not Included’ goes to show these musical technologies have a place in our beloved metal. What’s served up to us is a song not too dissimilar to something from The Prodigy’s back catalogue. This bleeds into the first collaboration of the record: ‘Bite My Face’. Featuring Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor, ‘Bite My Face’ showcases the collision of typically hip-hop drums with fat metallic riffs done well. The track is ferocious in displaying the “Pitbull. Lockjaw” elements Ho99o9 boast in their verses. Yet it isn’t pedal to the metal constantly. A slower interlude gives a small moment of respite before Taylor gives a gruff scream and an explosion into a disgusting riff we can wholeheartedly get behind. If this features in the upcoming Knotfest Roadshow, we can only predict carnage in the best of ways.
