Weekly Update #14 – April 21, 2024

FEATURED ALBUM
Alpha Wolf // Half Living Things
Released: April 5, 2024

Alpha Wolf has become one of the most recognizable names in metalcore in the span of just a few years. Following the ejection of their vocalist, Aidan Ellaz, in 2018, Alpha Wolf leveraged the ensuing drama and elevated their name to new heights. Aiden went on to form Dealer, and the tit for tat retaliations and diss tracks undoubtedly benefited both bands. Dealer also has a new album coming out on May 10, and it will be in direct competition with this one. I’m excited to see who comes out on top.

It’s surprising that these two groups are so evenly matched. Most bands would have folded to the energy and attitude that Aiden brought to Dealer, but Alpha Wolf recruited Lochie Keogh as their new vocalist and, in my opinion, his ability to go toe to toe with Aiden saved Alpha Wolf from getting demolished.

That brash attitude and undeniable energy has become a cornerstone of Alpha Wolf’s music. “Bring Back The Noise” and “Sucks 2 Suck” are huge callout songs that will definitely be crowd pleasers. Sometimes it feels like they’re trying a little too hard to seem badass, but that’s kind of what Alpha Wolf is all about, and it’s a hard line to walk, so I don’t hold it against them.

While the straight up songs are fun, I found myself enjoying the abstract songs more. “Haunter” and “A Terrible Day For Rain” offered more variety. A few moments felt like they could have been on Emmure’s album ‘Look At Yourself,’ and I’d like to see them lean into that more.

For me, the problem with Alpha Wolf is that if you’ve heard one song, you’ve heard them all. Lochie’s vocals are really good, and he has decent range, but somehow all of his lines sound the same. Maybe it’s because he’s pushing the same pissed off attitude all the time. Or it might be because his screaming style and the cadence of his screams are super predictable. It’s the same problem Silence/156 has too.

I think it also has to do with the song structure. If you look at the lyrics, there’s an insane amount of repetition of the same lines in parentheses. The back and forth effect is neat at first, but it seems like a real crutch in terms of how they progress through their songs.

Unfortunately, the instruments follow the same “nu metalcore” template in most of the songs too. They’re fun and sound cool, but there’s not much that distinguishes one song from another instrumentally.

And the worst part is that when Alpha Wolf does try something new, they don’t do it very well. “Whenever You’re Ready” isn’t too bad, but “Ambivalence” completely missed the mark. I’m not sure why they decided to end the album on such a weak note. “Pretty Boy” also goes off the rails and has an added cringe factor due to the lyrics.

This album has some great moments, but it’s dragged down by the lows. Every time Alpha Wolf tried to expand their sound or do something new, it didn’t work. They still haven’t figured out how to successfully incorporate clean singing and the even more marked shift toward nu metalcore instrumentals probably homogenized the album more than they intended. 

Playlist of New Songs

Quick playlist highlights:

– I’ve been iffy on Left to Suffer experimenting with cleans, but this song is spectacular.

– Memphis May Fire‘s new single doesn’t have very many screams, but it’s filled with energy. Matty always has strong choruses and that continues to be the case.

– Threat Signal just released their demo from 2004-2005 and it reminded me of how much I love this band. Has anybody else ever heard of these guys? Their 2006 album called ‘Under Reprisal’ is legitimately one of my favorite albums ever.

– Ghost Iris shocked me with this one. Super heavy metalcore out of Denmark.

– Something crazy is going on with Dal Av. Four weeks ago I featured one of their songs and noted that they almost had 500,000 monthly listeners. That number is now up to 730,000! This is clearly all because of me and I’m sure Logan will be sending me a thank you any day now. Lol but on a serious note, these new tracks are killer.

– Bilmuri has been leaning into some country vibes lately. If you liked the grooves that Issues had before they disbanded, you’ll like this a lot.

– Bad Omens is releasing ‘The Concrete Jungle [THE OST]’ on May 31. It’s described as an “experimental extension” of their last album. The last few singles have been pretty cyberpunk and synth heavy. I probably won’t love it, but I’ll check it out to see what they’re up to.

Questionable Tour Dates

Hawthorne Heights just announced a tour with a bunch of other bands and I’m trying to understand how they picked these locations.

There’s one California date, three Tennessee dates, three North Carolina dates, four Wisconsin dates, five Florida dates, and five Texas dates. Iowa even gets two dates.

Also, this tour poster is so hard to understand. Oh, you want to know which bands are playing on your date? Here’s a cipher, have fun decrypting it for five minutes. Suddenly I’m back in geography class trying to decode a map with the most confusing legend ever.

DRAMA – Dance Gavin Dance Kicks Out Tilian

In a shocking turn of events, Dance Gavin Dance has kicked Tilian (their clean singer) out of the band due to “creative differences” (see statement below). Obviously, a lot of people are skeptical about the reason the band gave for his removal – if you aren’t familiar with the background, let me give you a quick run down.

In 2022, two women came forward and accused Tilian of sexual assault and coercing them to have sex against their will (I actually did a super in-depth video on it which I’ll post below in case you want to dive into the details). Tilian acknowledged that he did have sex with both women but that he believed it was consensual. However, in an “open apology” to one of the women, Tilian said, “I will be entering an intensive therapy program to address this issue head on to become the healthiest, most responsible version of me, doing the work necessary to ensure this never happens again.” A lot of people took this statement to be an admission of guilt, or at least an acknowledgement that he made a mistake.

The next day, DGD announced that Tilian would be stepping away from the band “to seek professional help.”

At the end of 2022, Tilian returned to the band and said, “I’ve spent the last few months in a rehab program for alcohol.” He also said, “It’s also important for me to address something that has been twisted and misrepresented during my absence from the band. The work I have done on myself and my substance abuse issues has nothing to do with any kind of sexual misconduct. I have never had sex or any kind of intimate relationship without the consent of a partner.”

This new statement was a clear attempt to retract what he had previously said. It further divided fans, but there wasn’t much that could be done – Tilian and the band had obviously decided that they could weather the storm.

So fast forward to this week, and you can see why people are hesitant to believe that Tilian’s removal from the band was due to “creative differences” and not potential issues related to alcohol abuse or baggage from the allegations.

DGD just can’t catch a break when it comes to their clean singers. Hilariously, Jonny Craig, the singer DGD already kicked out two different times, has the most liked comment on DGD’s Instagram post announcing Tilian’s departure. He said, “Ayyyyyy what’s goooooood 😎.” I can’t imagine DGD would let him join for a third time, but maybe they’ll be enticed by the idea of creating ‘Downtown Battle Mountain III.’

Here are some of my favorite comments from DGD’s Instagram post.
– “Don’t worry guys, the 32nd singer is the charm for sure.”
– “Get that little ginger ex-junkie macbook selling dude back. His voice is golden” (referring to Jonny Craig)
– “This is like having a mom that keeps changing boyfriends.”

Most likely, Andrew Wells from Eidola, who is already in the band, will take over singing. Or perhaps Kurt Travis returns (since he filled in for Tilian on a DGD tour when Tilian was away).