Erra - Cure (April 5th, 2024) • Page 5

I'll have to give Impluse and Augment another shot. It's been years since I've tried, so maybe they'll click for me now.

 

I don’t think it’ll be a straight up return to the style tbf but take what they learned on the self titled and and Cure and apply it to a more melodic songwriting style.

I don’t think Drift sounds bad but I do agree about the production jump. I’d love to see Nolly come in again and mix this next one if they are leaning more towards the Drift sound though.

I think in some ways Impulse and Augment are kind of trendsetters for those djent metalcore cliches. So at this point if you’ve heard like Polaris or older Wage War and *then* you go back to those it’ll sound dated. If you decide to revisit Drift and Neon some things to keep in mind is that JT had bronchitis on Drift and he came in late to replace their second vocalist, so if there’s any vocal weirdness it’s because of that. And Neon is a mess with some good moments.

 

i really like drift for what it is but jt's vocals and the odd production choices keep it firmly at 5th place erra for me behind the first and last two albums, so honestly a modern take on it informed by the confidence and lessons of the self titled and cure sounds like a slam dunk

 

That's interesting to hear. I'm not familiar with those bands but I've seen these names many times before. From what I'm understanding, these all might be part of their own subgenre of metalcore I already avoided in the early 2010s. While that style was popping, I was much more drawn to the sides of metalcore that included bands like Norma Jean, The Chariot, Underoath, Silent Planet, The Color Morale, Architects and others I can't think of at the moment.

Reading about the Misery Signals comparisons on here and other places is interesting because Controller is kinda the ultimate proggy metalcore album for me. Their music didn't come to mind when I listened to those early albums though. I should revisit them, taking that context into consideration to get a better understanding of what was going on when they came out.

 

controller gave jesse his vision for what this band was gonna sound like which is super cool

 

I was gonna say there is def some djent chugging (that was def lifted from Periphery) but to my ears Controller is very clearly the groundwork for the guitar leads on the early stuff, you can really hear it here

 

It’d make for a fun trilogy of albums at least. Self titled = technicality and shredding, Cure = groove and rhythm, album #7 = melody and vibes.

Also, almost certainly not gonna happen, but I loved how Loathe embraced shoegaze on I Let It In… and I’ve always wanted to see a metalcore band do that kind of thing but with guitar driven indie rock ala Minus The Bear or Gang of Youths. Every time I revisit songs off of Drift (I’m due a full relisten) I keep thinking that maybe ERRA’s the band to pull that off.

Their original second guitarist, Alan, is who wrote the Misery Signals sounding parts on those first two records. And I’d say ERRA eventually settles into something more like Architects by the time they get to Neon (as does Silent Planet) but I they’ve been breaking out of that influence as they go thankfully.

 

The Misery Signals vibe is suddenly very obvious to my ears now. I'm gonna give these albums another chance

 

really thinking about it, impulse and augment are like the best attributes of controller + born of osiris + cove era saosin in a blender

 

Revisiting Impulse, the Misery Signals influence is so strong it's wild I didn't even realize it at the time. I already appreciate it more now that you guys pointed that out to me. Still have the same gripes with it though, the cleans (reminding me more of Sleeping With Sirens or Of Machines) remain a turn off and there's too much chugging for my tastes.

Onto Augment now

 

Feels like they double down on what I don't like on Augment, but Frostbite (kinda post-hardcore at times), Prometheus and Augment into Dementia are neat.

 

Starting to think Neon might be my favorite after all. That one is straight up banger after banger. Definitely reminiscent of where tons of metalcore bands suddenly started moving towards at that time (Architects, Northlane, Silent Planet, The World Alive and probably others I'm forgetting) but they do that sound so, so well.

Love the choppy/glitchy technical riffing. Like, what the hell is going on in Expiate... how do they even come up with that lol. It feels like I'm suddenly listening to Protest The Hero, and it adds an unsettling contrast next to the catchy hooks.

Sorry for the spam, been a while since I got this much into a metalcore band so I'm kinda journaling my second/third playthroughs. It's fun having even stuff that I wasn't sure on during my first listen already grow on me.

 

Yes Neon fam!!!

 

Yeah I think Neon was definitely them playing with 2010s metalcore. Shame the mix and some songwriting decisions Jesse made has caused the band to sour on it because Monolith, Signal Fire, and Disarray (which is definitely about Trump, despite what the band has said lol) are all timers in their catalog imo

Also, stumbled on some pre-Australian tour interviews and all of them have Jesse just wandering around a Walmart. In one of them he made the "return to form" comment again but did not mention Drift. I still think it'll lean more in that direction though.

 

mind linking the interviews? this all has me back in erra fiend mode for the first time in a while lol

 

https://youtu.be/FPss1G6zMOo?si=vPTVrvh23_YC6xCA