I still have a hard time deciding if I like the full on assault songs better than the weirder more experimental songs. The album really is perfectly balanced in that regard.
I haven’t immediately clicked with NJ albums often outside of wrongdoers. But when I’m getting Trenches and Erase me Underoath vibes in the same album I’m happy.
Erase Me vibes? I’d love to hear you expand on that. This seems like the anti-Erase Me to me personally. Have we talked about how Cory straight up sounds like the lead singer of He Is Legend during Anna. Definitely mean that as a good thing.
So in my head the thought was more guitar tones on some of the experimental and moderate parts of some of the songs that made me think of erase me (an sos potentially other records) not the vocals. I’d have to go back and listen to pick up which songs. Corey and spencer have never sounded similar to me. But while I’ve never thought about it Schuyler and Corey have a similarity for sure.
Anti-Mother has a bunch of features right? Dude from Helmet and Cove in addition to Chino is what i remember.
Yeah those three contributed a lot. I think they considered them more “co-songwriters” than just guest vocal features.
I can't think of a single band in the genre that continues to grow as much as NJ. Each new album they release is absolutely fantastic. Holy crap is this new album a banger.
any active bands out there that sound like NJ? Seems like most metalcore now is either the more crazy chaotic sound or the AltPress-favored pop metalcore. I always thought Underoath and Norma Jean sat in this perfect space of heavy and melody and it’s kinda disappeared since. Greyhaven are great but can get a bit too chaotic for me. Limbs have that nice booming wall-of-guitar sound but I think they blend a bit more.
Not a 1:1 ratio but you might like Ithaca — not a lot of melody but definitely pretty heavy and not very Alt-Pressy. Vein is another great band too but definitely lean more into the chaotic side, like Greyhaven
It's already a slight stretch because of the djent influences, but you might like the latest Architects album.
I remember saving an Ithaca album to listen to, gonna have to revisit. Agreed on Vein. haha I thought about using ETID as an example. Unpopular opinion but I’ve always struggled to get into em. A few songs I love but for the most part I really don’t like the guitar work. I do enjoy architects for sure, but I see em as just doing the AltPress sound really really well all good bands, thanks for the tips
They aren’t around anymore but the two Spitfire albums, Self-Help and Cult Fiction, have some of the best metalcore material ever recorded in my opinion.
This is the only album I’ve been listening to since it was released. Might be recency bias, but I could see it being my album of the year.
I don't know if it's my AOTY, but I have definitely listened to it more than any other album already this year.