Like it or not, Code Orange’s Forever (2017) is one of the most influential albums of recent years. The record’s unprecedented mixture of hardcore, industrial and ’90s alt rock was bolstered by an impressive marketing campaign, garnered a Grammy nomination and drew seemingly universal praise from everywhere but here. Within…
Over the past few years (and specifically in 2018), I’ve been taken aback by the critical affinity with metalcore. It’s not just because of the music itself, though I’ll admit that I’m not particularly fond of recent critically acclaimed albums from bands like Code Orange and Vein. No, what really…
Hello, and welcome to the final post we will have about 2018! Yes, it’s late January. And yes, this is coming out much later than in previous years. After several years of completely burning myself out assembling these industry lists, I made the decision early on in planning out our…
The presence of dissonance and electronic elements in hardcore today speaks for itself. It’s okay, nay, encouraged to embrace a bully’s approach to structure and melody, shaking both down ’til they tumble in and out of consciousness. Leeched, thankfully, are far more direct in their approach. On their full-length debut…
Effectively this is one of our Hey! Listen To This! posts. It just doesn’t have those words in the title. In the solo edition of Rotten to the Core previous, I spent a little bit of time on each band without really getting my teeth in to the juicy goodness…
Debut albums are an odd beast. Even when they’re good they tend to come with a lot of growing pains, and bands at this early stage in their career tend to lack the self-awareness to really exploit their own potential. Sometimes, this rough, unrefined approach is great. It can often…
Lists. People love them and love to hate them. There is always going to be a bunch of things to criticize end-of-year lists about, and many of those criticisms will always have merit. Placing any sort of artificially-objective construct onto something that is as wholly subjective a thing as listening…
Our staff has shifted quite a bit since we posted our first aggregate AOTY list back in 2014. From refocusing our content to implementing The Brooklyn Plan™ to publishing our 2017 AOTY list, our roster of contributors has fluctuated substantially in terms of numbers and genre preferences. This ebb and flow…
Psychosis has come out during a period when it seems the Cavalera name is more visible and relevant to the metal world than it has been in a long time. The iconic Max Cavalera appeared to have hit his post-Sepultura peak with the back-to-back release of Dark Ages (2005) and Inflikted (2008)—the later of which saw him reuniting with estranged brother Igor and the establishment of the Cavalera Conspiracy. From there, however, it seemed Cavalera senior was content to churn out a steady flow of serviceable yet largely unremarkable Soulfly records, while each of Cavalera Conspiracy’s subsequent releases—though certainly each embedded with their own distinct personality—failed to excite in the same manner as their masterful debut. Yet, beginning with 2014’s superb supergroup collaboration, Killer Be Killed, Max’s career looks to be, once again, on the upswing, and Psychosis only further supports such speculation.
It’s been a minute since our last Holy Roar Records File and even longer since I wrote one. It’s only appropriate that the post is dusted off and brought back for this. Somehow, I hadn’t covered Employed To Serve in this feature before but that HAD to change for one reason; The Warmth Of A Dying Sun releases today and is a bona fide game changer in hardcore and heavy music. You can throw Code Orange at me all you want, Employed To Serve are thee band at the forefront of genre smashing heavy music. As always, make your own damn mind up about but if you feel like you need convincing then read ahead. There will be bountiful amounts of hyperbole and fruity language – oh, and a track by track breakdown from EtS’s very own Justine Jones. Tight.
