Renaissance can be a beautiful thing and when an emerging group of extreme metal diehards manage to pay homage to the genres forbearers whilst still propelling things forward, success cannot be too far on the horizon.
Hailing from Central Florida, Tactosa breathe new life into old skool deathcore and Exit Wounds sets its stall out early, with brutal riffs and pounding percussion being the order of the day. Opening track ‘Dead Pacifist’ comes charging out of the traps with frantic aggression, melding the band’s hardcore and death metal influences in the most savage manner before giving way to the furious ‘Tastemaker’, which features sections that wouldn’t sound out of place on the next Knocked Loose record. Two tracks in and, although being as white-knuckle as you can get, it is evident that this band are not just simply pig squeal and breakdown merchants; they’ve got groove, they’ve got muddy, rattling bass breaks and there’s enough hardcore-tinged moments to keep the two steppers happy.
The band’s heart-on-sleeve reverence for Suicide Silence is never more apparent as ‘DIY Autopsy’ begins with a riff that would make their 2007 masterpiece The Cleansing blush, before vocalist Kyle Weeden‘s piercing cry of ‘JUST A SLAVE TO YOUR SENSES’ conjures aural memories of the aforementioned band’s much beloved and bitterly missed frontman Mitch Lucker. If all of that was not enough, Kyle Medina (of Switzerland bruisers Paleface) barges his way to the foreground with what will surely be considered, when 2023 is said and done, one of the most aggro mosh calls of the year to bring the EPs centrepiece to a colossal, crushing close.
Next up and beginning with an audio clip that harkens back to the MySpace glory days of deathcore’s original wave in the mid 00s, ‘Augured In’ showcases the bands penchant for flitting between break-neck speed hardcore beats and truly skull-rattling breakdowns, all the while coupled with the most piercing of shrieks and guttural of growls. The EPs title track then brings the bands first true body of work to a killer close, finally petering out into the ether in a wash of feedback. At 17 minutes and 46 seconds, Exit Wounds arrives, raises hell and leaves again, resulting in an insatiable appetite for more and an itch to see these songs in the live environment.
As mentioned at the top of this review, deathcore has had something of a renaissance in recent years but with zero symphonic tracks or triggered kick drums to be heard, Tactosa are offering something that is wildly different to many of the genres current crop of hard hitters; they actually sound like a band playing in a room together. A breath of fresh air in the modern scene, Tactosa aren’t reinventing the wheel but they are offering something that rejuvenates the classic sound of the genres early emergence and success with their own stamp of assurance, firmly establishing them as a band to keep an eye on as they develop their punishing brand of extremity even further.