Metalcore will never die. Sure, it may exist in some bastardised, boardroom-approved form in some bands who will remain nameless but true metallic hardcore will always be there. It tickles all the right parts of the brain. Anger, frustration, sadness, euphoria and in some rare cases, all of these within a single track. It can be pigheaded and at times it can be a little reductive, but there’s a reason that a genre invented in the late nineties still inspires so much adoration and worship.
Placed firmly at the front of the pack of the modern throwback metalcore scene are Foreign Hands. Having seen their star continue to rise over the last few years, the Delaware natives blend of modern crunch and plenty of hero worship has won them fans across the world. The band’s last EP, a tour-de-force blend of Poison The Well, 7 Angels 7 Plagues (there’s a Matt Mixon feature on ‘Until The Sun Fades’ that will warm the hearts of old school ‘core heads), and Eighteen Visions to name but a few received near rapturous adoration, from fans old and new. Yet the band, driven by creative force Tyler Norris (who’s also part of the nu-metal revival of the 20s in wristmeetrazor) weren’t content to become a soundalike, they wanted to carve their own path.
Despite the album flying by in just over half an hour, the band cram so much simultaneous hero worship and their own stamp on the genre into the runtime. The wild, whirling guitars of opener ‘Resetting The Senses’ give way to crashing, chaotic drums and that classic, catharsis-ridden mix of screaming and singing. When the clean chorus kicks in you’ll be transported to a sweaty club venue, desperate to grab the microphone to butcher the beauty being conjured here, such is its effect. There’s even a brief, melodic bit of spoken word in there for good measure. The album’s first half is a breathless cacophony of heavy, fast metalcore. It’s also some of the best you’ll hear this year, maybe even this decade so far. The blend of the past with the present is ridiculously on point, with their contemporaries such as Boundaries influencing their sound and presence as much as bands like Misery Signals.
Longtime fans may recognise the name ‘Lacerations Wings’, and that’s because it’s a redone version of a track from their 2018 promo release, but for the vast majority of fans, it’s as good as a new track, given the beauty of Will Putney’s loving production. Speaking of, the New Jersey wizard’s handiwork on this record is some of his best in recent times. He imbues the breakdowns, the mosh parts and the cleans with a blend of the classic, ramshackle clattering that metalcore became so known for and a modern, almost crunching sheen. It even works well when the band channel post-hardcore legends Thursday, on ‘Conditioned For A Head On Collision’, which features Static Dress frontman Olli Appleyard and it’s one of the album’s highest points, with some fantastic, emotive melodies taking the fore, blending so well with the standard ‘core fare.
While it may lull you in slowly, the final track certainly doesn’t go the way of a lot of other bands and become a slower, melodic ballad. Probably the heaviest, most crushing breakdown on the record is saved for ‘Magnetic Roses’ and it bookends the record with the high energy opener. Truly, without spoiling (Not that the content of the record will be much of a massive surprise to those who’ve followed the band) the rest of the tracks, it’s an album with very little in the way of lulls and dips. Any one of these songs could find their way into the bands live set and stay there for years to come. Hell, with the album being the aforementioned half an hour and change long, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the band whip it out in full on some future dates.
If you don’t like Metalcore, then this album won’t be the one that suddenly changes your mind but for those who know and those who are already aware, this is a triumph of hype and build by a band only half a decade into what will certainly be an exciting career. This is already a record poised to stand the test of time, one that you’ll be telling people to listen to in years to come.