The recent rise of Code Orange has created a buzz around the band. Some have been surprised by their broadly growing popularity.
Forever just came about three weeks ago. It’s easily their best and most comprehensive album yet. With each album their hypothesized sound sharpens with clarity. I Am King also had underground hype a few years ago but didn’t have the same coherence.
Just start with “Forever” and “Kill the Creator” which absolute slay some VFW hall or club. The arrangements possess carnage making breakdowns and back-beat bass slaps that’ll make anyone puff their chest in the pit. There are also some of these artistic elements introduced before they start playing a bigger role in the album.
Programmed distorted bass intermissions and industrial drum loops interrupt and reconnect parts of songs. Those two tracks are dynamic alone for a single, but Forever stands strong as a whole. Each track has purpose. No song falls into a filler category.
“Real” is the first of those songs that ventures into something outside of hardcore or metal. It loads up heavy for 45 seconds and then silences into a wonderfully industrial break. They use it to progress back into viciousness.
At times it feels like three or four songs in one. It actually works here unlike most artists I hear trying to string more than one song together.
Of all the tracks “Hurt Goes On” annihilates all barriers of genre. This piece of art explores an infinite void. Its lyrics haunts you, inspires an odd toughness, and whatever kind of darkness but not evil you want to describe. It’s an industrial spoken word. The simple but harsh beat can repeat forever and never lose its quiescent intensity.
There’s still songs that are true to CO’s roots. Nothing’s heavier or more metallic than “Spy” on the record. Nothing.
Gratefully there’s a bit of Rebe Myers’ singing too. “Bleeding in the Blur” has this grimy feel to it featuring Myers through out. It’s a pretty rare treat with a song that’s more grunge than hardcore and the kind of song you wouldn’t expect from this kind of ferocious band.
“Dream2” is a black hymn and wraps up Forever in a spiraling silence. If it started destructively, the end was a mum departure. They left the village and went outside the city walls.
It’s clear they executed and transposed from their mind exactly what they wanted.
Disaesthetic 