I’ll level with you. As i sit here, exactly one week before this record’s release, I don’t have the time to commit huge amounts of time to this review, but I do want to cover this record, because it’s made me feel some feelings about metalcore that I’m not entirely sure how to process.

This record is the new project of Alex Varkatzas (co-founder and original vocalist of Atreyu), guitarist and producer Gabe Mangold (of Enterprise Earth), and drummer Brandon Zackey. So there’s some experience and chops here. Whether they’re chops that exist in a genre or sphere that you enjoy is maybe a different question. But here’s the thing. I don’t know if I expected this to sound that much different to what it does, but I enjoy it a whole load more than I expected to. The riffs are, at times, utterly savage and fera, the inevitable aim for occasional ‘soaring’ choruses hit the mark more than they miss and the over-production that is synonymous with the genre in 2024 is sparingly deployed and actually does serve the songs in most cases. The build and release in the title track feels like a wave crashing over the prow of a ship in one of those scary videos you see of tankers in the North Sea. It feels enormous. And potent, most critically. And even when the next track, “1 Millions Days” enters with a more melodic, mealy-mouthed approach and my heart sank a little, it’s not long before the dam breaks again and you have shameless, ludicrous solos and quasi-industrial, hammering beats that sweep the song up in a whirlwind of enthusiasm, before an absolutely filthy (if not necessarily imaginative) breakdown brings the song to its exasperated, dying breaths. It’s kind of thrilling if you’re willing to leave your preconceived notions at the door.

It’s not a complete triumph I should point out, however. There are points in the record that feel less inspired and more methodical, not least the first half of “Fountains of Death”, but then the second half is entirely different. Like a combination of Eighteen Visions and At The Gates. And “Casting Spells” feels like The Black Dahlia Murder covering a SeeYouSpaceCowboy track. Though actually that’s a really good tune, too. There are a couple of interlude tracks which arguably don’t add a huge amount to proceedings, but at sub-40 minutes, it’s not a long record, so I don’t find myself feeling it entirely necessary to skip them. And when the record finishes on recent single “Betrayal Shaped Daggers” there is a sense that they’ve been able to save one of the biggest bangers to last, which is kind of impressive. The riff that opens the track is what I imagine getting hit with an E. Honda hundred-hand slap would be like if he were holding rusty knives. (That’s an old guys reference now, isn’t it? Fuck.) And though it doesn’t stay that nasty, it serves as a decent album closer, especially with the unhinged closing that I’ll leave you to discover yourselves.

Look. It’s not revolutionary and it’s not liable to bother that many end of year lists, but the difference I think here is conviction and enthusiasm. So rarely do you hear people making this kind of music these days and where you can believe they do it for the love of it. This has that in spades. And that makes it worth listening to. Also it’s a million times heavier than the piss-weak radio-ready, cookie-cutter bullshit that Bad Omens and whoever the fuck put out. Come to that, it’s heavier and more well-composed than a whole heap of ‘big’ records this year. Give it a spin.