Weekly Update #8 – March 10, 2024

FEATURED ALBUM
Curses // Into Emptiness
Released: March 8, 2024

Curses is one of my favorite finds in recent years. They have two vocalists and the one with the deeper lows is the closest thing to early The Devil Wears Prada that I’ve ever heard. The layering of his lows and the other’s highs make for some cool moments. The singing is also really strong this time around.

Instrumentally, Curses has always been solid, but things feel a little more weighty on this EP. The ending atmosphere of “Black Canvas” is a good example.

This EP has great production without feeling sterile. Despite being quite heavy for metalcore, it’s more emotionally vulnerable. The raw sounding vocal styles lend themselves well to the idea of unification through suffering.

Additional Review
The Requiem // A Cure To Poison The World
Released: February 16, 2024

This is an interesting debut album from a band that I didn’t expect to enjoy. I’ve never really liked this brand of emo / post-hardcore before, but Static Dress opened my mind to it a little more last year. 

There could definitely be more screams, but if you want a throwback to the sound of your middle school break up, this will probably do it for you. Lots of angst, heartbreak, and drama. But it’s fun for what it’s supposed to be.

I’ve seen comparisons to My Chemical Romance, but I can’t validate that because I’ve only ever listened to like three of their songs. My version of middle school heartbreak was more like Atreyu and Bullet For My Valentine.

Kind of a weird fact – the band was originally called L’exquisite Douleour and their vocalist is named Damien Douleur. 

Additional Review
Sunspear // Sunspear
Released: February 16, 2024

After putting out singles for five years, Sunspear has finally emerged with their debut album. It’s not particularly revolutionary, but it’s polished and will probably grab enough attention to get some traction.

There’s decent variety in the screams, but the choruses were mostly forgettable. The best parts almost always happened when they leaned into the heaviness on songs like “K.C.D.” Other than those moments of heaviness, it was rare to feel a spark of passion. 

The album has some cool features, but it’s not a coincidence that those songs are the main ones worth listening to. The features add more to the music than Sunspear can offer themselves.

For the most part, Sunspear unfortunately encapsulates the state of young metalcore bands in 2024. If you came across one of these songs on Spotify, it would blend into every other new band – which is fine, but it would barely register – and you wouldn’t even think to pull out your phone to see who the band is. That’s kind of harsh, but I wouldn’t punch down if I didn’t think they could do better, they just need to differentiate and carve out a space for themselves.

As with a lot of modern metalcore bands, especially those playing this particularly commercial sound, there’s not much identity or individuality to grab onto. I don’t even know what being a serious fan of this band would entail. But if this was like the fourth metalcore band you ever heard, it would do the job.

Playlist of New Songs

Quick playlist highlights:

– Like Moths To Flames is on one of the hottest streaks I’ve ever seen. Their new album comes out on May 10 (the same day as Knocked Loose and Dealer). It’s only March and I’m already starting to worry about my top 10 at the end of the year

– The Plot In You is above criticism in my mind. Landon Tewers is a true artist. Very happy to see a purely heavy song from him again. Reminds me a bit of his side project AI 640.

– The Devil Wears Prada released my favorite album of 2022 so they’ve set the bar incredibly high for themselves. This new track is a solid follow up. It’s hard to judge in a vacuum because TDWP songs build on each other and are better understood when you see how they fit into the context of an album.

– Eidola released another great single – reminds me a bit of Galleons. They don’t need a ton of screams, if they keep this amount throughout the album then that will be enough for me.

– Cogitations just put out their debut album and it’s one of my favorite deathcore releases of the year so far. Great mix of heaviness without needing to engage in extreme vocal gymnastics.

–Alpha Wolf is showcasing their more introspective, melodic side. I have a soft spot for songs like this and it’s cool when heavy, tough guy bands make them (thinking of Emmure and Darko).

– Fleshgod Apocalypse. Can’t miss a chance to plug some Italian symphonic death metal.

– SeeYouSpaceCowboy will release their new album on April 19. I have to be in a certain mood to enjoy the sassy singing, but the more traditional cleans are a nice counterweight. Screams are killer as always.

EXTRA PLAYLIST?!? Metalcore Sampler

One of my friends sent me a message saying that they want to get back into heavy music so I made this “Metalcore Sampler” playlist for them. The goal is to showcase a bunch of different styles, have them select their favorites, and then give even better recommendations based on their preferences. It’s loaded with personal favorites so I figured I’d share it here. Great gym playlist.

DRAMA – Bring Me The Horizon

Bring Me The Horizon is coming under fire for ripping off Moodring. Let me just say, I think this is a wild reach, but you can draw your own conclusions. It all started when Oli Sykes (vocalist of BMTH) posted this clip of him dancing to an unreleased BMTH song that sounds a lot like Deftones.

Fans immediately started saying that the song being teased sounds like another band called Moodring. The crazy thing is that Moodring has been cosplaying as Deftones for years.

Moodring’s vocalist, Hunter Young, used to have “knockoffchino” as his Twitter username (referencing Deftones’ vocalist, Chino Moreno). He also has a face tattoo of a white pony, the cover art of Deftones’ 2000 album, ‘White Pony.’

Fans also said BMTH’s new song “Kool-Aid” copied Moodring’s song titled “Black_Wave.” Compare 1:18 of Kool-Aid to 1:45 of Black_Wave.

While similar, fans seem to be missing the fact that Moodring isn’t the first band to do that drop (Loathe and In Fear come to mind). At this point, it’s par for the course when writing that style of music.

My take is that BMTH is hopping on the Deftones train…just like dozens of other bands that have popped out of the woodwork since Loathe copied Deftones on their 2020 album ‘I Let It In…’

Personally, I think this style of shoe-gazey, ethereal instruments and drowned out, echoey vocals is incredibly boring and played out. More than anything else, this experimentation seems to be a continuation of what BMTH has been doing for years, incorporating every sound possible into their music. This time they’re just paying homage to Deftones’ signature sound.