Weekly Update #19 – May 26, 2024

FEATURED ALBUM
Like Moths To Flames // The Cycles Of Trying To Cope
Released: May 10, 2024

Like Moths To Flames is on fire. It’s rare for a metalcore band that’s been around for almost 15 years to hit their stride so late in the game, but LMTF’s last couple releases have been unbelievably good.

Often, metalcore bands’ efforts to expand their style result in disaster. But after their 2015 album, LMTF had to do something. They had taken their core sound as far as it would go. While it had produced classics like “GNF” and “Bury Your Pain,” the hits were becoming fewer and farther between.

‘Dark Divine’ in 2017 reignited the band’s creative spark and laid the blueprint for their future efforts. It divided LMTF’s discography into two eras, and that’s important because very few metalcore greats from ages past have successfully reinvented their sound while staying squarely within metalcore. It’s basically just Like Moths To Flames and The Devil Wears Prada. Both bands were pillars of the scene in 2012, drastically changed sounds, and are arguably more exciting than ever right now.

Part of that successful transformation is the elevation of their artistry. If we’re being honest, early LMTF albums are relatively basic and straightforward. That’s not necessarily bad – that’s what made them fun! But their more recent albums have an artistic feel – an element of beauty typically reserved for bands like Invent Animate.

The other change that’s taking LMTF to new heights is Chris Roetter’s vocals. You can hear him become a better, stronger vocalist on every single Moths record and I think he is easily one of the best vocalists in the genre right now. His most notable development on this album is the occasional tinge of evilness to his screams. His vocals have always been charged with emotion, but there’s a new element of malice. He started doing it on the ‘Pure Like Porcelain’ EP and it’s especially noticeable this time around on tracks like “Angels Weep” and “Paradigm Trigger.” At times, it’s almost disconcerting to hear LMTF be this heavy. 

The instruments also do a great job mirroring the aggression of the vocals. ‘The Cycles Of Trying To Cope’ is probably LMTF’s darkest record so far. It may not be super apparent on its own, but if you compare it to ‘No Eternity In Gold,’ you’ll see some major differences in the overall mood and atmosphere. ‘The Cycles Of Trying To Cope’ has an element of chaos, especially instrumentally, that adds to the gloom. “Over The Garden Wall” is a great example.

The one trade off on this album is the choruses. Normally, Chris is a master at crafting unbelievably catchy choruses, but these ones aren’t hooking me. It’s a weird complaint because I don’t normally put a lot of stock in clean singing, but choruses have become such a fun part of LMTF’s recent releases that their absence is felt on this record.

I hold all of LMTF’s recent releases in such high regard that it’s difficult to rank them. I appreciate the intensity of this album, but the increased chaos and heaviness came at the expense of catchiness. I fear that some of the deeper cuts may get washed away over time because they lack a defining, memorable moment. While this may not be the best LMTF record of all time, it’s not far off. It keeps their streak of insane releases alive and shows that they continue to fire on all cylinders even while exploring new avenues. It’s only a matter of time until they find a way to merge the darkness of this album with the melody of ‘Dark Divine’ and ‘No Eternity In Gold.’

Playlist of New Songs

Quick playlist highlights:

– I have so many thoughts on the new Bring Me The Horizon album. Expect to see a full review next week. I decided to highlight “Limousine” because I talked about it in the “drama” section of a past newsletter. This is the song that Oli posted a clip of and people complained that it sounded exactly like a Moodring song. I still have the same opinion that I had back then – nobody knows who Moodring is and this sound belongs to Deftones so anybody who copies it is copying Deftones. Moodring (61,000 monthly listeners) doesn’t get to rip off Deftones (11.2 million monthly listeners) and then complain that BMTH ripped them off.

– As I Lay Dying just released their first single in three years. It’s their first song since losing three of their longtime members. I’ll cover the drama surrounding this song in a section below. As for the song, it sounds pretty good from a distance, but the lyrics are so bad because it’s a diss track. Overall though, I’m pretty hopeful about the sound/style.

– Attila has a new track featuring Dickie Allen ( Infant Annihilator). It’s a major throwback to the sound they had in 2013 on ‘About That Life.’ Fun and heavy – that’s what Attila is supposed to be about. Still, I can’t help but feel like Fronz is trying to figure out what people want to hear rather than creating music with his own vision in mind.

– Babymetal and Electric Callboy have a new song and it’s a blast. Two incredibly upbeat bands feeding off each other’s energy.

– I still have a hard time adjusting to Within Destruction‘s genre switch from slamming deathcore to…anime inspired metalcore? Honestly, the chorus of this one is great. I’m surprised I’m not being more of a hater this week, but I don’t know, there are so many standard bands these days, I can’t get mad at bands for trying something new.

– Do I need to pay more attention to Capstan? I quickly browsed through their new album and it seemed too soft for my tastes, but there were a couple fun ones. The one I featured here is really good.

– Zeal & Ardor might be gearing up for another album. They had my third favorite album in 2023 so my expectations are super high. It’s tough to judge them based on singles though because you need to hear them explore their sound on a full album to really see the vision.

DRAMA – As I Lay Dying Diss Track

It’s nice to see AILD making music again, but Tim Lambesis definitely has some thoughts about his bandmates abandoning him. To be fair to them, it’s understandable that they had a hard time getting over Tim’s past actions (he was arrested for hiring a hitman, who turned out to be an undercover detective, to kill his estranged wife).

The three members that left were Nick Hipa, Jordan Mancino, and Josh Gilbert. Together, they had a combined total of 53 years of experience playing in As I Lay Dying.

As a result, AILD recruited Ryan Neff from Miss May I to do clean vocals. I’m not sure how that’s going to turn out – I have always found Ryan’s singing to be pretty bad, especially live.

AILD also recruited Ken Susi (guitarist from Unearth) and Nick Pierce (former drummer of Unearth) to fill the other gaps. I really like that move because Unearth has the same og metalcore roots as AILD.

As for the song, it sounds pretty good from a distance, but the lyrics are so bad. It’s almost too straightforward of a diss track. Check out these lines.
>”I’m far from perfect, But what I gave you was a gift.”
>”No one will ever know the full truth, so I choose to let the music itself, Speak volumes about you, Nothing but deadweight, Seeing the world all expenses paid.”
>”So caught in the past, A legacy you hardly built, While here in reality, I sadly witnessed your intellect wilt, You hardly wrote a note, Like a well dressed ghost, That learned to feed off us, As a virus to a host.”

DRAMA – Bring Me The Horizon vs Ronnie Radke

Oli Sykes (Bring Me The Horizon) and Ronnie Radke (Falling In Reverse) have had their fair share of run ins over the years. Radke called Oli out in 2013 for selling shirts with modified lyrics from a Tyler, the Creator song. Then, in 2020 Radke called out BMTH for ripping off Architects. (As a side note, I personally think it’s the other way around – Architects has always been a couple years behind the BMTH curve.)

Anyway, from what I know, Oli hasn’t really punched back until recently. Listen to the start of this song. The lyrics say, “Hi, my name’s Oli, and I’m an addict (hi, Oli).”

This seems to be a direct reference to this song from Falling In Reverse. Skip to 2:08 and you’ll hear, “Hi, my name is Ronnie, I’m an addict (hi, Ronnie).”

For the record, I don’t think these two actually dislike each other. Ronnie starts fights with everyone, and even though Falling In Reverse is massive and can bully most other bands, Bring Me The Horizon is in their own league. They seem willing to poke fun at each other and I don’t think it’s more serious than that.

I do wonder if Radke knew that BMTH was releasing a song that would reference him ahead of time because on May 15, more than a week before the BMTH song came out, he posted this on Twitter.

The joke is that Oli had this haircut back in 2013/2014, and it’s especially noticeable in the music video for “Can you Feel My Heart.” Interestingly, Radke almost never qualifies his disses, but this time, he immediately clarified, “I respect Oli, this is a joke, kinda like when I make fun of myself.”