Weekly Update #24 – August 4, 2024

FEATURED ALBUM
Enterprise Earth // Death: An Anthology
Released: February 2, 2024

I want to take a moment to revisit Enterprise Earth’s album from earlier this year. At the time, many hailed it as an album of the year contender. My personal tastes have led me in slightly different directions, but it is certainly worthy of a top 20 spot.

If nothing else, I have to highlight that this album is eclectic. Calling it an “anthology” is very fitting – each song has its own style. Some might find it disjointed, but that’s the point. The unifying theme is variety. So much so that even after a dozen listens, I’m still discovering new sections that seem brand new. Although much heavier, I can’t help but think of Avenged Sevenfold when comparing the range and grandeur. 

There are moments of devastating deathcore heaviness, blistering thrash metal guitar solos, progressive sequences, and everything else you can imagine. I hesitate to even call this deathcore – the sound is too expansive.

Making this album was a huge leap of faith. After parting ways with Dan Watson (ex-vocalist of Infant Annihilator and current vocalist of Mire Lore) in 2022, I wasn’t sure how Enterprise Earth would fare. Dan created the band and was part of its signature sound.

Gabe is incredible on the guitar, but I was skeptical of their new vocalist, Travis Worland, and I wasn’t sold on their 2022 album, ‘The Chosen.’ However, despite this being a significant departure from the band’s established sound, this album is among their best. Once I accepted that this version of Enterprise Earth is a completely different band than when Dan Watson was at the helm, I could appreciate all that ‘Death: An Anthology’ has to offer.

“Casket of Rust” has some influences from Slice The Cake, another incredible band that pushed the limits of progressive deathcore. “I, Divine” has an interesting song structure, often returning to the same hypnotic groove. “Curse of Flesh” has some very solid metalcore moments and Matt Heafy’s feature helps it soar to new heights.

But the real highlight for me is “Blood and Teeth.” It’s one of my favorite songs of 2024. The imperfect singing in the chorus is captivating and the ending is gnarly. It showcases the variety that exists throughout the album, bringing in sections of piano that some liken to Sleep Token.

Enterprise Earth have evolved in a way that most bands can only dream of. Their transition away from pure deathcore began on ‘Luciferous,’ and I expect that they will continue exploring new styles and sounds in the future. They are certainly one of the most interesting deathcore-adjacent bands around right now.

Foreign Hands // What’s Left Unsaid
Released: June 21, 2024
Review written by: @therecentlyadded

If you’ve been following along the modern hardcore narrative, you may have noticed Foreign Hands releasing countless singles throughout the last seven years, alongside a rather convincing EP a few years back that came close to elevating the band’s trajectory. But nothing in the band’s catalogue compares to what’s been captured here.

While “Horror Domain” will remain the band’s pinnacle, a hill I am most definitely willing to die on, the entire record is probably some of the best modern metalcore I’ve heard in a very long time. The nuance of cleans smashed in between Misery Signals riffage, Poison The Well’s chord progression, two step grooves and finely tuned breakdowns make for an instant classic that’s only been out for a few weeks. It’s a release long in the making, from a band that’s worked so hard to chisel their sound with a frontman who’s been on the road practically since birth alongside other notable scene road dogs Wristmeetrazor, Simulakra and the mighty, but dormant, Vicious Embrace.

Credit – @therecentlyadded (www.instagram.com/therecentlyadded)
Thank you to Ace for allowing me to include his review of Foreign Hands. I’ve followed him for a long time and always appreciate the insight contained in his succinct reviews.

Playlist of New Songs

Quick playlist highlights:

– Kingdom of Giants finally has new music! ‘Passenger’ was a massive album in 2020 that I still go back to, but after four years, I was starting to worry that they were taking too much time out of the spotlight. It looks like their new EP is scheduled for September 20, and it’s just in time if you ask me. A lot of other bands have started to crowd the “dystopian synth” vein of metalcore, but I’m confident that KoG is still one step ahead of everyone else.

– I’m divided on Fit For A King‘s new song. One one hand, it’s pretty heavy and Landon Tewers is always an amazing guest vocalist. On the other hand, this is the perfect example of a band that has thrown away their identity in favor of electronic overtones. If Ryan Kirby didn’t have such distinct screams, you would never be able to tell that this is a FFAK song. They’re clearly caught between their classic sound and making the switch to Octanecore. For now, they’re (I would say unsuccessfully) trying to ride the middle ground.

– I wanted to throw the new Postmortem Promises song in the list. I’m loving the pig squeals and OG deathcore sound. Plus a feature from Alex Teyen (vocalist of Black Tongue)!? Yes.

– Fit For An Autopsy released the first single from their new album that’s due out on October 25. These guys are always near the top of my album of the year list and this is a solid start. I haven’t always loved the incorporation of cleans on their recent albums, but it’s done pretty well here. Everything else sounds like FFAA firing on all cylinders.

– A Wake In Providence just released a new album. I’ve listened to it a few times and I’m still collecting my thoughts. Lately, it’s been hard to distinguish between super busy deathcore albums that have a lot of symphonic elements. It isn’t a Lorna Shore copycat, so that’s good, but a lot of bands are making the same pivot and still end up occupying the same space (e.g., Mental Cruelty’s latest album).

Half-Assed Drama Involving Kublai Khan

I was going to get deep into this one, but I just don’t feel like it. Long story short, a guy on Instagram (www.instagram.com/johnny_tsunami_88) posted a “Trump 2024” flag and Matt Honeycutt (vocalist of Kublai Khan) “liked” it.

This caused Twitter to lose their minds because Kublai Khan have taken a pretty strong stance on quite a few social issues in the past.

Full-Assed Drama Between Emmure and Alpha Wolf

This happened a few months ago when Emmure was touring with Alpha Wolf. I’m not entirely sure what happened behind the scenes, but Frankie (vocalist of Emmure) posted a photo on Twitter with Unity TX and Chamber saying “this is the tour.” Obviously, Alpha Wolf is missing.

This caused Alpha Wolf’s bassist to respond. Ouch, Unity TX and Chamber getting caught in the crossfire. I’m not sure if he meant to use the emoji that means “love” in sign language or if he was trying to do the metal horns. Overall, not a very strong retort.

And because Frankie has no chill, he killed him.