Weekly Update #13 – April 14, 2024
FEATURED ALBUM
Erra // Cure
Released: April 5, 2024
Erra had my favorite album in 2021, but I’m not impressed this time around. In general, too many of the songs feel scaled back and stripped down. The simpler, somewhat muted sound lends itself well to the basic grooves that the songs fall back on, but the transition to this style violates a few of the core principles that has made Erra so successful up to this point.
In every review I’ve ever written about a band that includes JT Cavey, I’ve said that he is the kind of screamer that serves as a great backbone for a band’s sound. He has minimal range and doesn’t do anything flashy, but he has the perfect tone and power for a band to build around. Historically, that worked great for Erra because Jesse Cash is an incredible singer and the band’s technical capabilities are top-tier.
But for this album, Erra watered down its instruments and diluted its sound in favor of a more basic approach. It reminds me a lot of what Northlane started doing on ‘Node’ and ‘Mesmer,’ where it sounds like they recorded the instruments under water, which I absolutely hate. Erra isn’t quite as offensive here, but the personality of the instruments is significantly diminished. “Slow Sour Bleed” is basically a Northlane cover song.
The biggest problem with ‘Cure’ is the fact that Jesse Cash’s singing is so lackluster. You can normally hear the power and energy in his voice, but this time around, it feels like he’s singing at half volume. His presence is hardly felt. The lack of power and engagement really affects how dynamic the songs feel.
This is probably a step too far, but I wonder if the fact that Jesse released an album with his side project Ghost Atlas earlier this year affected things. Maybe he put more energy into that album or it drained his creativity. Or maybe he just decided to try a new vocal style on this album. Either way, it’s a bummer because Jesse is normally the highlight, but he sounds like any other singer here. The only time that I got a little excited about his singing was on “End to Excess.”
To give credit where it’s due, JT Cavey continues to be a very solid screamer. Anything positive that I could say about this album is due to him. He is obviously not the type of frontman that can carry an entire band, and that’s fine, nobody expects him to do that with Erra. He played his part perfectly – it was the rest of the band that left him hanging.
Compared to Erra’s self-titled album, there is an extreme lack of riffs, resulting in fewer memorable moments. The choruses are also much more bland than what we’ve come to expect. The songs don’t have their own identity – nothing stands out.
The crazy thing is that this isn’t even a bad album. But if you go back and listen to their self-titled, this is just so boring in comparison. Songs like “Snowblood,” “Gungrave,” and “Vanish Canvas” are infinitely better than anything ‘Cure’ has to offer. Realistically, this is probably my least favorite Erra release so far.
Playlist of New Songs
Quick playlist highlights:
– Make Them Suffer have to be getting ready to release a new album, right? This track isn’t as good as “Ghost of Me” or “Doomswitch,” but I think they’re still trying to find the best way to utilize Alex’s singing. Anything is better than what Booka used to do so I’m a fan.
– Architects is back with another heavy song, but it literally sounds like a Bring Me The Horizon cover. It’s not surprising because BMTH recently parted ways with Jordan Fish and then he immediately helped Architects with this song. I’ll admit that it’s pretty catchy, but Architects will never beat the allegations that they’re always five years behind the curve of BMTH.
– In Hearts Wake is parting with their singer as he focuses more on his family. This song (and the accompanying music video) is a very cool send off. I was just thinking about these guys the other day – they need to find a way to get back in the spotlight.
– Like Moths To Flames released their fourth single ahead of their album release on May 10. We have a pretty good idea of how it’s shaping up and I’m very excited.
– Sail’s End put out a great EP in 2023 and this new track is a ton of fun. Very fun metalcore that frequently verges on deathcore.
– Convictions has been killing it with their singles in the last couple years. Kind of cool to see a resurgence of aggressive worship music. It’s wild to think about the chokehold that Christian metalcore had on the scene for years. I was just jamming For Today the other week so I’ve been thinking back on that lately.
– Northlane just released their new EP. I’ll probably try to review it, but I don’t know man. I just don’t get the appeal. I picked this song because it’s the least boring and features the vocalist from Structures.
– Thrown released another song. It’s fun but only two minutes long. At this point, you have to wonder if they can write a song that doesn’t feel like an intro. They have nine songs and the average length is two minutes and twelve seconds. Their longest song is only two minutes and thirty eight seconds. Will they ever hit the three minute mark?
– August Burns Red released a new version of “The Cleansing” which features Will Ramos. This was my favorite song from their last album and Will’s screams are an insane addition. This song always stood out because it flirts with black metal in a way that you’d never expect from ABR. Will’s vocals at 3:25 build on the instrumentals so much better than what ABR did the first time around.
– Wage War is on life support. Legitimately, what is going on. Absolute cringe. How did we go from ‘Blueprints’ and ‘Deadweight’ to this?
– Traveller‘s new single is so good. They put out an EP last year and I definitely need to give it a listen.
– I saw a conversation on Twitter this week about nintendocore and it gave me the craziest flashback to this band called 100DEADRABBITS!!!. I haven’t thought about them in over a decade, but this song was an absolute jam for me back in the day. “BITCH PLEASE, WOULD YOU KINDLY, GO DROWN YOURSELF IN THE OCEAN.”
– Cane Hill is re-emerging after a couple years of silence. Both of their new tracks are quite heavy, which I love to see. These guys are super talented, but they’ve switched styles so often that they haven’t really established a base.
Chelsea Grin Member Change
Chelsea Grin has officially parted ways with their drummer, Pablo Viveros. Pablo hasn’t actually played with Chelsea Grin in a couple years so this isn’t completely unexpected, but in a somewhat shocking move, he joined Ameonna, which is Alex Koehler’s new band. Alex Koehler was the original vocalist of Chelsea Grin so he and Pablo played together from 2012-2018. With both of them back together, it looks like Ameonna might end up reviving Chelsea Grin’s classic sound.
The wild part is that Pablo is being replaced by Josh “Baby J” Miller. If you don’t know why that’s a big deal, let me break it down for you.
Josh Miller played drums in Emmure, then joined Spite, then left to focus full time on Darko. The other member of Darko is Tom Barber, Chelsea Grin’s current vocalist. So Darko is basically a subset of Chelsea Grin now which might make for some interesting dynamics…
Regardless, this is massive news for Chelsea Grin because everything Josh Miller touches turns to gold. He has an incredible sense of groove – he’s basically a second Joshua Travis, which is funny because they played together in both Glass Cloud and Emmure.
Chelsea Grin’s stock just went up big time. It’s basically guaranteed that Josh Miller will make them noticeably better and more interesting.
From The Archives
Fronz from Attila shared this video on Twitter. This has to be one of their first shows, right? The synchronized head banging and running in place is peak 2008. And a backyard show in the middle of the day?! I hope kids these days are still doing this.