Metalcore is one of the most loaded words in music. Much like emo, people assign a lot of meaning, negative and positive. Too many breakdowns. Every song sounds derivative. What’s left to hear? Why even listen? Most “grow out of it” but in reality they’ve just lost interest. Metalcore fails to keep their attention. How can these bands stay relevant? Easy, write great songs, evolve musically. It’s not an easy feat. Metalcore as a genre invites many not adapt enough musically to ever mature, a problem inherent when making music is so accessible. Even with the saturation in all corners of the market one can find metalcore bands crafting catchy and staying projects.
Just this year bands like Hundredth have taken their sound in surprising directs. Like Moth to Flame simply produced an album with no filler, no nonsense songs. Their last album The Dying Things We Live For used every generically reprehensible metalcore element possible. Just another average disc with no staying power, doubling down on anything positive they’d already done. Slow chugging breakdowns, no real structure other than breakdown upon breakdown. I dismissed them as a band, thinking the best was already behind them like many of their predecessors i.e, As Blood Runs Black or Chelsea Grin.
Dark Divine sees the band retooling their entire approach to song writing. “New Plagues” starts pretty heavy but transition into real riffing, something unfamiliar for LMTF, which leads to an open clean choruses. Take note, this is their new formula on the record. Working with new producer Erik Ron, Panic! At The Disco and Four Year Strong, may have influenced more chorus centric and structural song writing. The result makes for extremely captivating coarse voice in Chris Roetter complimented by the band’s ability to forklift four ton metal. “Nowhere Left to Sink” displays this growth better than the rest. They allow Roetter to work his lyrics in early and build toward the band’s best chorus yet. I enjoy the overthinking everything theme. I get caught up in small details trapping myself in the same hole I was already in. It’s a very relatable theme, but incredibly effective in its presentation.
The record focuses on failure, particular in your mind, and how that pit seems bottomless. You’ll find moments like this built for bigger audiences throughout. “Shallow Truths for Shallow Minds” has the universal “whoa oh” chorus which yes one can easily tag as cheap and generic; however, I find the placement within the song perfect and timely. I hope to participate in a live audience for this one. “Empty The Same” goes along like its predecessors, initially, and intervals into some black hole. It’s quiet for a moment but once through the warp gate you find yourself in a Underoath/Oceana breakdown. I don’t want them to move away so quickly from that section. It raises the hairs on my neck like Birth.Eater or Define the Great Line. I’d like more of that darker breakdown.
There’s enough heavy and old LMTF too if that’s all you want. “From The Dust Returned” has you covered. The verses has the kind of bounce you’ve come to expect along with a speaker wrecking breakdown. “Mischief Managed” brings the wood too, which is in line with previous projects referencing Harry Potter. I’d hope “Instructive Intuition” could convince some of the more stubborn heavy listeners to move over to my side a bit. The pre-chorus slide and pull riffing could get me off my ass and into the pit. The chorus is catchy as hell, easy to repeat, and sing along with.
Anyone reading this or listening; give it a full go. It’s their most complete album and anyone can appreciate really well crafted songs. There isn’t any padding or pointless tracks. Everything here ranges from solid to extremely replayable. I make plenty reference to complete albums in my writing and I complement Dark Divine for that. Especially for the style of music where bands have enough trouble making one good song, let alone expecting an entire album. Like Moths to Flame far exceeded probably most’s exceptions this year. Hopefully they swing by my and your town for visit. I wouldn’t want to miss them next time.
Disaesthetic 