Bad Egg have set themselves up for success in 2024. Coming in hot, right before spring hits and delivers perfect tour weather, this Ontario hardcore machine has just started rolling. In order to deliver a masterclass example of hardcore-punk oriented metal, Bad Egg worked tirelessly with producer Bill Morton to bring listeners an EP that not only feels fresh and new but rides the waves of bands before them like Scowl. Century Egg is a seven track ordeal that doesn’t let up from tracks one all the way to seven.
Opening up in swift fashion with “Beat Egg”, Bad Egg not only impresses listeners with some stellar guitar work but also delivers a perfect intro track with ease. While showing a quick example of what they have to offer, in just two short minutes they also manage to add many influences into the mix all at once. From sounds like Turnstile to a more groovy Spaced oriented route; Bad Egg are clearly no strangers to changing up their sound a but when they need to.
Keeping with the trend of ever changing sounds is track two, “Breakin’ the Lease”. Not only is it faster in tempo but everything about this track absolutely rips from start to finish. From the drums and guitars that pound and riff with no break to the vocals that thrash nonstop the entire minute long track. If you came for punk music, this track is sure to reel you in without a doubt.
Throwing together post-hardcore, shoegaze, post-metal and a hearty dose of noise, Belgian quartet Divided draw comparisons to contemporaries like Brutus, Stake and Chat Pile with a sound that’s as raw and brutal as it is honest. With only a single EP under their belt these relative newcomers make a striking impact on their powerful debut album Light Will Shine.
Despite being one of the more accessible tracks on the album (clocking in at a comparatively swift five and a half minutes), the opening song ‘Cinder’ is a perfect encapsulation of everything that makes up Divided’s unique DNA. With a repeated, earworm riff which acts as a consistent backbone to the track, fitting perfectly as the band shift from low and slow stoner territory through Converge-esque demented noise and shoegaze inspired sonic exploration. Singer/drummer Pepijn Vandaele’s talents are on full display here, simultaneously combining tastefully complex beats and vocals which waver between soaring metal screams and punky, raving, off beat shouts. ‘Cinder’ comes across as a genuine statement of intent, showing off a little sliver of every style Divided excel at while still feeling like a cohesive, well constructed track in it’s own right.
Compared to a number of the other tracks ‘Cinder’ feels like a bit of an outlier, getting some of the band’s more raucous energy out of the way early before taking a more subdued tone on slow-burn tracks like ‘Days Undone (So Long)’ or ‘The City Slowly Undresses’. These two tracks take different approaches to their more melancholy sonic palettes, the first, ‘Days Undone (So Long)’, steadily building with droning guitars and an almost post-rock inspired attention to atmosphere before exploding into a demented metal breakdown whereas ‘The City Slowly Undresses’ strips Divided’s sound right down to a lone piano which morphs into a scratchy acoustic guitar backing Vandaele’s strained, gloomy voice, crescendoing as the song goes on with layers of tortured strings. It’s great to see what a band like Divided can do with these longer, less metal focused tracks on an album that’s otherwise pretty damn heavy.
Wristmeetrazor as a band name is simultaneously hard as hell and likely to make some people scoff and call it edgelord behaviour. Thankfully though, their music is entirely the former and the band have been slicing out a name for themselves in the more frantic end of metalcore for seven years now. Sitting somewhere between screamo, mathcore and noughties metalcore, the Washington D.C crew made a mighty statement with 2021’s Replica Of A Strange Love, making a record that sounded like From First To Last meets Knocked Loose inside the mind of a philosopher after too much acid. There was also more than a hint of nu-metal in the band’s sound which has only grown more prevalent on their latest effort Degeneration.
When Replica Of A Strange Love came out, the band existed in a small scene. The screamo/emo/metalcore blend they peddled seemed almost strange, a deliberate throwback, with only bands like SeeYouSpaceCowboy doing anything remotely similar. Today however, they exist in a bigger class. For this record, the band have had a few lineup changes, with former bassist Justin Fornhoff now exclusively their vocalist, and introducing their new bassist Userelaine, formerly of Spiritworld and Nate Billmyer on guitar), which is one of the reasons for the album feeling a little more chaotic. That’s not to say that their last effort was restrained by any means, but with Justin having the freedom to focus entirely on his delivery, it takes the record up a few steps. Also immediately noticeable is the production. Things feel weightier, chunkier and the nu-metal has been cranked up. We’re not talking about Limp Bizkit taking it to the Matthews bridge here though, think more Spineshank and American Head Charge and their industrial slant.
Randy Lebeouf is behind the mixing and production desk for things and his impact is immediate. ‘Turn On, Tune In, Drop Dead, hits like a train through your front room. There’s a swagger to things with the track sounding like something you could imagine leather-clad vampires grinding away to. Justin’s vocals, as mentioned, benefit from stepping away from bass. If anything, when you go back to previous efforts he almost sounds reserved in comparison. ‘Static Reckoning’ takes the chaos of the opening track and moulds it into something huge. The soaring chorus, reminiscent of early Bleeding Through and almost Machine Head stomp throughout show that the band aren’t just preparing for the big leagues, they’re getting their foot in the door. Perhaps the biggest sonic shift on this record is the amount of groove thrown into the band’s sound, to the point where combined with the nu-metal bounce and EDM elements, there’s bound to be as much ass-shaking in the pits as there are stray elbows.
Straddling the line between slacker pop-punk and shredding metal, Sum 41 have stood high among alternative rock’s most revered bands since their iconic debut album All Killer No Filler released in 2001. Now, after 27 years together, the Ontario based quintet have returned for one last hurrah before riding off into the sunset. Their eighth and final album Heaven :x: Hell splits itself down the middle with ten tracks of upbeat pop-punk and another ten of blistering alt-metal. It’s certainly an ambitious undertaking but can Sum 41 really deliver their usual quick-witted, plucky sound on an album this huge?
Heaven :x: Hell gets off to a strong start with ‘Waiting On A Twist Of Fate’, a classic sounding pop-punk anthem which feels just as fresh as their work in the early 2000s. Drummer Frank Zummo’s blisteringly fast beats take centre stage with some incredibly impressive drumming rarely heard in modern pop-punk while the rest of the band keep the pace with sing-along gang vocals and ferocious, shredding guitar solos. It’s genuinely refreshing to hear pop-punk taken back to its roots like this, combining skater-punk attitude and catchy hooks with fun, technical musicianship. If ‘Waiting On A Twist Of Fate’ is the beginning of the end then the rest of the album is set up to be a great send off for Sum 41.
You’d be forgiven for not being well acquainted with Frail Body. Dropping their twenty-one-minute debut album A Brief Memoriam towards the tail end of 2019; the Midwestern trio barely got a chance to tour their gut-wrenching blackened post-hardcore before the world ground to a halt. Frail Body, alongside other acts such as Portrayal of Guilt and Closer, are helping to breathe new life into and clear the stigma around the screamo genre. Now swiftly approaching five years later, the band are continuing to explore extremely heavy themes with suitably heavy music whilst expanding their range on their follow up effort.
Artificial Bouquet screams to life with opening track ‘Scaffolding’, bludgeoning the listener with oppressive blast beats, dissonant tremolo guitars and pained high-pitched black metal howls. The tension is tightly wound from the start, ready to snap at any moment. ‘Scaffolding’ sways from the oppressive blackened atmospherics to a choppy post-hardcore rhythmic swing, Lowell Shaffer’s vocals deteriorating into incoherent ramblings. Immediately followed by ‘Berth’, pushing into more aggressive and unhinged territory with higher tempos. The instrumental has grown in complexity, embracing the math side of the midwestern emotional hardcore influence for more volatile technicality.
The sudden pace change in ‘Critique Programme’ is akin to hitting a brick wall. Succumbing to a heavy bass groove, primal percussion and the atmospheric embrace of the guitars; brief flashes of the blackened blast beat intensity, jolting back and forth between them and a post-hardcore groove. Despite the blasts, the tempo remains steady, building to a chest pounding crescendo wrought with catharsis. Second single ‘Devotion’ further explores the ambient textures, diving into post territory, yet Shaffer’s vocals still add turmoil to the dazzling atmospherics. It’s a fitting avenue of exploration that they dabbled with on the debut, with post-rock/metal compositions typically being highly effective when portraying complex feelings.
Its rightfully rather difficult to pin down Mancunian trio Mumbles. Garnering a healthy reputation for their chaotic live performances, opening for acts such as Deerhoof and Melt Banana. The band explore various aspects of a range of genres with their music, dipping their toes into emo, noise rock, folk, ambient and free form jazz. Masterfully avoiding being cornered and pinned down by traditional genre conventions, Mumbles are very much their own band with their own style rooted within the indie rock world. Written, recorded and produced painstakingly over the course of four years after front person Jacob Nicholas overcame years of life changing illness; In The Pocket of Big Sad ponders humanity after coming to terms and powering through trauma and agony.
Opening track ‘How Do Happy?’ is a sub two minute emphatic battle cry of coping with the overbearing weight of reality. The varied instrumentation present across the album shines from the opening vocal calls, spreading melodic exploration across shining brass and woodwind, locking into a driving, yet sad, indie rock and post-punk verse and overwhelmingly catchy chorus.
Following up with the frenetic ‘JD Sports’, lurching from chaotic, noisy math-rock noodling to indie punk song structures, showcasing the bonkers variety on display. ‘Poached Egg, Chilli Flakes’ doubles down again, opening with fuzzy saxophone jazz punk riffs that could be pulled straight from Melt Yourself Down, complex bass lines ultimately breaking in uncomfortable ambient passages akin to Xiu Xiu.
