#r&bcore

[falloutbradreviews]

Since I Lost Issues: RIP Topic One Of Metalcore’s Most Ambitious Bands

Georgia-based metalcore band Issues released their debut EP in 2012, Black Diamonds, but their self-titled album came out in 2014. Issues, which is also the band that came out of the split from metalcore band Woe Is Me after vocalists Tyler Carter and Michael Bohn left after their debut album in 2010, I believe, is a band that I struggled to get into for a long time. I felt as though that while their sound was ambitious, they leaned too far into the metalcore tropes of the time, and not enough into the pop and R&B sounds that Carter was really into. That all changed with 2016’s Headspace, where the band went into forays of pop, R&B, funk, nu-metal, and alt-metal, along with metalcore. That record still toyed with the tropes of metalcore, but it was 2019’s Beautiful Oblivion that did it for me. That record took every sound and influence and melded it altogether into a single cohesive record, and they really were on the cusp of becoming the future of the genre.

That was before the band kicked out vocalist Tyler Carter for some heinous accusations, and before I go any further, I don’t want to make this piece sound like I’m upset they broke up, or that I don’t understand why, considering what I just said, and the pandemic coming right afterwards put a halt into a lot of bands’ plans, as they had to retool everything from recording new music to touring. I did want to write this, though, because they put out one more song, at least before they put on a few farewell shows this year to celebrate and commemorate their time as a band.

Issues is a band that took time for me to get heavily into, but when it clicked, it really clicked for me. I love metalcore, although my relationship with the genre has been complicated over the years, and I also really love pop and R&B music, so it’s cool that Issues broke those walls down and combined the two styles, as well as eventually adding funk and alt-metal to the mix. Nowadays, bands are happy to experiment and throw in non-metal influences to their sound, albeit some better than others, but the boundaries are blurred within the genre now. Issues are a reason for that, I think, but you have other bands that paved the way for that, too, such as Bring Me The Horizon shedding most of their metalcore influences to have a pop meets alt-metal meets metalcore sound.

I just listened to Beautiful Oblivion while working on this piece, because I wanted to see if the album’s held up over the last four and a half years since it came out, even with the stain of Tyler Carter and I have to say that it honestly does. I don’t feel as bad for listening to them now, because of two things — they’re breaking up, so the band is disappearing for good, and part of what makes that record (as well as the whole band) work so well isn’t just Carter. Instrumentally, these guys are too notch. It takes a good rhythm section and backing musicians to make a record truly great, not just the vocalist, and while Carter is still a top tier vocalist within the genre (unfortunately), he isn’t the most important part of the band, especially for a band as unique and ambitious as they were. Beautiful Oblivion, and their new song that they just dropped to coincide with their farewell shows, entitled “Since I Lost You,” is a reminder that begs the question “what if?” If Carter never got kicked out, and/or the pandemic didn’t happen, this band probably could have been a lot bigger than they ultimately ended up being. What will their legacy end up being now, though?

Time will tell, as with all things, but I think it’ll be a good one. Carter being fired is a stain in that legacy, but not to the chagrin of the others, and the fact they broke up afterwards is good, as they didn’t try with another vocalist that most likely would have paled in comparison, and as far as breakup records go, Beautiful Oblivion is a great one. It’s a genre-bending masterclass on how to make metalcore with many different influences, and how you can love metal and other genres at the same time, ultimately not putting yourself into a box, whether that’s in terms of being a musician or being a fan. If I wasn’t already into pop and R&B music when this band hit the scene, at least to a small degree, I would have probably wanted to sink my teeth into those genres more, thanks to this band, and I wonder how many other people were influenced by them to do that. Their legacy may be a little complicated at the moment, because of everything that happened about four years ago, but these guys had a good run. RIP to Issues. You’ll be missed.

With Issues’ breakup, there are other bands that carrying the torch for them. Their brand of “R&Bcore” influenced a lot of other bands, even if it’s indirectly, as a lot of metalcore bands are moving into a pop-friendly sound. Bad Omens, Beartooth, Sleep Token, Wage War, Of Mice & Men, Bring Me The Horizon (they’re another band that’s been slowly making more pop-friendly stuff, too), and many others are giving metalcore a new sound. A lot of newer bands are continuing this sound, too, such as Sleep Theory, Archetypes Collide, and Wind Walkers, and while they’re relatively safe and generic, they’re still catchy and fun, just what the genre asks for. Issues will never been forgotten; their place in metalcore and heavier music is secure. The vocalist of the band The Home Team, a pop-punk band that mixes alt-metal and R&B into their sound, is filling in for the band as their vocalist on their farewell shows, and it’s a good fit because Brian Butcher has one of the best voices in the genre and is finally starting to blow up a bit. Issues will always be a band that people remember, and their time was good, but instead of remembering what happened to them and why they broke up, let’s remember what made them so memorable in the first place, because unlike a lot of metalcore bands, Issues was great for every member, not just their vocalist.

[jungleindierockspain]

Sandré - NO

Sandré no tienen tiempo para nada y te lo cuentan a velocidad de vértigo en 1 minuto y 34 segundos, que es lo que dura su tema NO, al que este medio sí va a dedicarle el oro de nuestros días. 

La canción tiene mucha fuerza y ese sabor punk de toda la vida. No el que algunos parecen imitar con camisetas a la moda (las hay hasta de talla bebé con Ramones en el pecho), sino el que representa una subcultura que no es fácil vivir y que pocos pueden llevarla con decencia a los escenarios. 

Rosa, Marc, Stefania y Carles (el cuarteto barcelonés Sandré) rezuman cabreo por todos sus poros y se han armado de guitarras para reivindicar “las miserias de la civilización y su capitalización de la existencia”. Les oirás desgañitarse hasta para decir que no saben si les gusta el punk. Pero yo creo que sí les gusta. 

Si no lo tenéis claro, podréis comprobarlo con su segundo vídeo Fracaso, una canción escrita “con P de Potu, Q de Quiste, R de Rancia, S de Sádico y T de Tortura”. Ambos temas, No y Fracaso, pertenecen a su álbum de debut  Ave Muñón, publicado el 1 de noviembre de 2019 vía BCore Disc, Mama Vynila y Snap! Clap! Club.

Enlaces: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

[music-genre-robot]

Folk R&Bcore

[katamarilife]

https://soundcloud.com/immatramagic/m-flo-loves-yoshika-let-go-1

[alterna2mag]

Sónar de Día 2017 - Parte IV: sábado

Pedro Suárez

Foto: Alterna2

Llegaba la última jornada de día al Sónar. Es increíble lo rápido que se pasa el tiempo en este tipo de festivales. De repente ya era sábado.

Abrimos la jornada en el Sónar Hall con Anímic. Los catalanes acumulan ya más de 10 años de trayectoria. El quinteto formado por Ferran Palau, Louise Sansom, Núria Monés, Juanjo Montañés y Miquel Plana venía a presentar Skin (BCore, 2017). Sansom dominó la actuación con su voz y junto a la potencia de los sintes, teclados, guitarra y bajo se apoderaron de la sala. Oscuridad musical en la oscuridad de la sala.

En el Sónar Village Joe Goddard nos ofreció uno de los mejores lives del día. No sólo es el cofundador de Hot Chip, junto a Alexis Taylor, sino que además es el dueño del sello Greco-Roman. Su actuación era por lo tanto de las más esperadas así como su LP Electric Lines (Domino Records - Greco Roman, 2017). Su setlist fue todo un homenaje al dance y al pop electrónico. Acompañado en algunas canciones por la cantante Valentina Pappalardo, tuvo su momento álgido con Music Is The Answer.

Foto: Ariel Martini - Sónar

Pasamos un ratito por el Complex para ver el directo de Nico Muhly. Interesante actuación del músico norteamericano, que se rodeó de otros colegas músicos para acompañar a su piano, entre ellos Valgeir Sigurdsson, fundador del sello Bedroom Community, en el que también participa Muhly. Interesante e ideal para verlo sentados. Destacable el tema A Hudson Cycle, con el que abrió o Quiet Music, en la que le acompañó Liam Byrne con una viola da gamba, instrumento cuya antigüedad data del S. XV y el destino ha querido que hasta llegue al Sónar. Así es la magia de la música.

Foto: Fernando Schlaepfer - Sónar

Más tarde nos dejamos envolver por la música atmóférica de Valgeir Sigurdsson. Nuevamente Liam Byrne se unió al escenario con su viola da gamba. Ambos nos arrastraron a parajes inhóspitos con su música. Melancolía y misticismo se dieron la mano en este show. Unas proyecciones que pasaron de la sobriedad a los colores intensos acentuaron aún más el efecto dopante del momento. Toda una muestra del sonido islandés más avanzado.

Nosaj Thing + Daito Manabe unían su creatividad para actuar conjuntamente en el Sónar Hall, en un espectáculo muy vistoso que combinó la música del norteamericano Nosaj con los visuales del japonés Manabe, quien por cierto está detrás también de la performance Phosphere que ocupaba el Sónar Planta. En su actuación junto a Nosaj el Nipon deslumbró con sus proyecciones futuristas.

Y de la calma total del Sónar Complex pasamos al ritmo funky soul de Tundercat, que actuó en el Sónar Dôme. La maestría con la que el susodicho toca el bajo eléctrico es brutal. Parece haber nacido tocándolo. Claro, estamos ante alguien que ya llevaba mucho tiempo en la música antes de lanzarse como Thundercat. Porque Stephen Bruner, el alma de este proyecto, ya fue el bajista de Suicidal Tendencies entre 2002 y 2011. Además ha colaborado con artistas como Flying Lotus.

Foto: Fernando Schlaepfer

Cerramos nuestra crónica del Sónar de Día con una actuación soberbia, la de SOHN. Christopher Michael Taylor es un cantante, productor y compositor inglés residente desde hace ya varios años en Viena. En enero sacó su segundo disco, Rennen (4AD) y en el Sónar Hall nos dejó anonadados con su talento. Una voz portentosa y un despliegue musical que abarca géneros como la electrónica o el indie R&B. No es de extrañar que lo comparen con James Blake. Con esta maravilla nos despedimos del Sónar de Día por este año, ya pensando en 2018, año en que el festival cumple 25 años.

Lo mejor del sábado: el buen hacer de Joe Goddard y la grata sorpresa de SOHN.

[falloutbradreviews]

Sleep Theory – Afterglow

Metalcore is in a state of flux at this point in time, and the genre is moving into a few directions, but the way you feel about each of those directions depends on how you feel about the genre as a whole. I’ve noticed the genre going into a few different directions, and I like certain ones more than others, but the main one I’ve noticed is what I call “Octanecore,” which I’ve talked about quite a bit. A lot of metalcore bands are taking hints from hard-rock and mainstream rock, but they’re incorporating that into their sound. They got metalcore breakdowns, screams, and riffs, but they also have hard-rock hooks and song structures. Bands like Beartooth, Memphis May Fire, Rain City Drive, and a ton of other bands have been making this style of metalcore popular, but it’s fine for what it is. This style of metalcore is great when it’s done really well, but it can also be super generic, boring, and uninteresting. It’s also becoming incredibly saturated, because so many bands are trying their hand at it now, and it’s just become exhausting. The other major kind of metalcore that’s becoming popular are the rise of the genericore band again, which is what I call just a generic metalcore band that doesn’t do anything unique at all. It seems like nostalgia is playing a big part in where the genre is going, because a lot of bands and artists are playing to the nostalgia of the 00s. A lot of fans are in their late 20s and early 30s now, so it makes sense that the genre would be nostalgic for a lot of people. The third and final kind of metalcore that I’ve been seeing is what I call “R&Bcore,” which is what certain bands are doing to update the sound by adding more pronounced pop and R&B influences to the genre. It started maybe around a decade ago with bands like The Bad Chapter and Issues spearheading it, but bands like Dayseeker (at least in recent years), Until I Wake, and a handful of other bands, have been championing this sound in the last handful of years. The biggest one of all, for better or worse, is Sleep Token, but I don’t like Sleep Token, really. I like the idea of them more than their actual music. They take metal, pop, and R&B and try to combine it in a really cool way, but it sounds overwrought, pretentious, and annoying, so I can never get into it. Lucky for me, however, there’s another band with “Sleep” in their name that has the same sound, but does this better – Sleep Theory. Sleep Theory has been around for the last few years, give or take, but I’ve been really excited for them to drop a debut album. I reviewed their debut EP from 2023, I believe, and I thought it was best described as Linkin Park if they liked R&B instead of nu-metal, which is still kinda how I’d describe their debut. Only this time, I’d say they also like metalcore, because debut album, Afterglow, is very much a pop-metalcore album with pronounced pop and R&B sounds.

A lot of bands in that vein only play with those sounds, but Sleep Theory have no shame being influenced by pop and R&B. Vocalist Cullen Moore has made it no secret that he’s influenced by soul, R&B, pop, and more mainstream genres, but he still loves playing metalcore and heavy metal. His voice is well suited for both heavier kinds of music and the pop and R&B that he was influenced by, and a big part of why this album works as well as it does is for his vocals. He doesn’t carry the album, as a lot of bands in this vein tend to do, but he’s a big part of why it works so well. The instrumentation on this album is great, too, because it balances the different sounds and influences well, and it never becomes a blatantly generic metalcore album. A lot of bands with the pop-metal type of sound usually want to be a metalcore band with pop hooks, but Sleep Theory circumvents that by letting the pop and R&B influences shine. At a brisk 40 minutes, this album breezes by, too, so it never becomes too much or feels too bloated for its own good. This is the perfect length for an album like this, because it keeps things short enough. Afterglow is truly one of my favorite records of the year, if not in the top five, and I know that’s soon to say, but this is a perfect mix of stuff I love. Whether it’s metalcore, alt-metal, nu-metal, soul, pop, or R&B, there’s a lot of stuff that I’m into here, and if you love any of those kinds of music, I would certainly recommend this album.

[falloutbradreviews]

Siamese - Elements

The term “Octanecore” has come to fruition in the last couple of years, because a lot of metalcore bands have tried to bridge the gap between heavier music and catchier hard-rock. I don’t know what the first band to use that sound is/was, but one thing’s for sure — it’s here to stay. It depends on the band as to whether or not it works, but a lot of bands that have gone to this sound only have done so because it’s easy. I hate to say that, but a lot of these bands sound the same, or at the very least, follow a formula. You could copy and paste their sound into ChatGPT and get a million different bands that sound the same, and it’s unfortunate, because some of these bands started off strong.

Danish outfit Siamese is one of those bands; I found these guys around 2018, when their second album, Shameless, came out, and it was during the height of the “R&Bcore” phase that was in full swing with a band like Issues being in their prime. A handful of bands were taking metalcore and mixing it with R&B / pop, and Siamese were a band that didn’t achieve the same heights that Issues did, but they were pretty cool. They were a niche band, as a lot of those acts were (and still are, depending on who’s left from that wave of metalcore), but Siamese wasn’t half bad. They weren’t my favorite band of that style that wasn’t Issues, but they got the job done.

I can’t say I was a fan of their last album, 2021’s Home, but I was interested in hearing their new album, Elements, just to see what it would be about. It’s been a few years since their last album, so I wondered how their sound has or hasn’t changed. Well, Elements is an album that gives me relatively mixed feelings, because I like certain things about it, but I also don’t care for other aspects of it. When they lean more into their R&Bcore sound, especially on their cover of “God Is A Woman,” the record rules, but when they go for a generic Octanecore sound that blends electronics and metalcore together, it falls a bit short.

I wish this record was better, honestly, but it isn’t half bad, either. It’s pleasant enough, but if you’re not a fan already, or you want something better, you’ll be better off with something like the new Wage War record. That doesn’t have an R&B bent to it, but it’s catchier and better executed. This isn’t bad, though, it’s just kind of forgettable. I’m not clamoring to go back to this, but it wasn’t a waste of time. I don’t know, it was fine enough, but I felt like it was lacking what I really liked from their earlier albums, especially that R&B sound. It comes in spades here, but when the album moves into a generic hard-rock direction, it loses me a bit.

[falloutbradreviews]

The Bad Chapter – Cheers To The Down & Outs

Throughout the last handful of years, “Octanecore” has really come to dominate the metalcore scene, for better or worse. I’ve talked about this quite a bit, but in case you haven’t read those reviews, or you’re new to the metalcore world, Octanecore is what I call a specific kind of metalcore that coexists with hard-rock and alt-metal. It’s pretty much hard-rock with screams, and maybe some breakdowns if you’re lucky, but you can blame bands like Bring Me The Horizion, Wage War, Beartooth, Bad Omens, and as of late, Sleep Token, for making this style of metal / metalcore popular. I’ve got mixed feelings on it, because it can be done either really, really well, or extremely boring and uninspired. I haven’t heard anything in this vein that’s really bad, per se, but I’ve heard bands that are extremely bland, by-the-numbers, and predictable by belief. When an album in that vein is done well, it can be both very catchy and heavy, ultimately bridging the two extremes quite well, so I’m all for it. A good example of the genre being done well is Beartooth’s most recent album, 2023’s The Surface. They went fully into Octanecore with that record, but I think it’s all for the best. The riffs and breakdowns are pretty hard-hitting, vocalist Caleb Shomo sounds the best he ever has, and the hooks are insanely catchy. Beartooth’s brand of Octanecore, however, is more on the hard-rock side, but there’s been a growing number of bands that are moving towards the pop and R&B side of the spectrum. I’ve already mentioned a few of them, such as Bad Omens, Bring Me The Horizon, and Sleep Token, but what if I told you that this sound has been around for the past decade and it’s somehow only now getting popular?

I can understand if modern rock and metalcore fans are just now hearing how pop and metalcore are starting to fuse pretty well, especially with the most recent albums from the aforementioned bands, but this type of metalcore was on the fringes of the metalcore scene in the early 2010s. You could point to Issues for being the band that really started that movement, but I was admittedly a little late to the hype train. I didn’t care for their self-titled debut very much, as I thought they still leaned too far into the metalcore aspects of their sound (despite how vocalist Tyler Carter had a great voice). I ended up growing on that album over time, but their second album is where they started to become more of a unique force to be reckoned with. They started utilizing their vast array of influences into something more interesting, all the while still being a metalcore band. It was their third and final album where they became something truly special, and it’s a shame that Carter ended up being a piece of garbage that caused the band to break up, but that’s what happens when a frontman is an awful person, right? I’d rather have these scumbags disappear from the scene than keep making music and being able to have a platform, even if they made great music (here’s looking at you, Jesse Lacey). There were a few other bands in that small, small scene, such as At The Skylines (that made one awesome album that disappeared, but I plan on talking about that record, too), Incredible Me, Light Up The Sky, Forget Tomorrow, Atlas Uncharted, and The Bad Chapter. The latter band is the subject of today’s review, but all of these bands had one thing in common – they played around with pop and R&B sounds in their brands of metalcore and post-hardcore.

I called it “R&Bcore,” and I was heavily into it, but it was such a niche in the metalcore scene, I could barely find anything that sounded just like it. That’s why I’m glad that more bands are being influenced by pop, R&B, and soul music (Sleep Theory is a great example of a new band that openly embraces these influences; they basically sound like if Fall Out Boy made a heel turn to alt-metal / metalcore), but that made me want to go back to some of these bands I used to listen to back in the day. One of the main ones was The Bad Chapter, and I was actually a big fan of these guys, at least during the time they existed. These guys made one album and then bounced, but they were pretty cool. I remember knowing who they were, because of their vocalist, Phil Druyor. He was in the band I Am Abomination, and they were this really cool progressive metalcore band that didn’t have any screaming in their music, but they just had clean singing. Druyor’s one of the best vocalists in the scene, even today, because his voice was almost unmatched. He was right there with the best of them, whether it’s Jonny Craig, Kurt Travis, Craig Owens, Anthony Green, and all of those guys, but no one knew who he was. Druyor was also famous for being the vocalist of Attack Attack after longtime vocalist Caleb Shomo (most famously of Beartooth now) left, but the band broke up soon afterwards. The Bad Chapter seems to be where Attack Attack would have went if the band kept going, but with Druyor on vocals, and man, this record is absolutely killer.

There are a couple of things that I’m not too crazy about on the album, but I’ll get to that in a second. I love pretty much everything about this record, however, and it’s only aged like fine wine. Because pop and R&B are infiltrating metalcore these days, this record was very much ahead of its time. Songs like “Lawsuit And Tie,” “Pipe Dreams,” and “The Lowdown” really lean into that. Druyor’s vocals are perfect for pop and R&B, too, and he sells it so well, but the hooks on those songs are utterly wonderful. The way that the band is able to combine pop, R&B, and metalcore is great. The only real issues I have with this record come down to a couple of small things, namely the harsh vocals and the lyrics. The harsh vocals really aren’t as much of an issue, as they’re just not anything spectacular, but they’re not half bad, either. They’re good for what they are, but the clean vocals are so good, it’s more noticeable that the harsh vocals aren’t as good. The lyrics, however, just aren’t all that good in general. They’re not offensive, by any means, but they’re not that great. I didn’t like them when I was younger, either, but I don’t care for them too much all these years later. They make some cool points, such as talking about the record industry, and what fans want from their favorite bands, but they’re not all that great. They don’t bother me, per se, but I can see someone being turned off by the lyrics of this thing. Overall, though, I really love this record, because the vocals and instrumentation really keep it afloat. It’s a shame that this was their only album, because it’s a banger. These guys were kind of a hidden gem in the metalcore scene a decade ago, because they had a sound that people weren’t quite ready for yet. Hearing this album in 2025 is strange, because it sounds like it could have come out in the last few years, but it’s a decade old now. It’s a record that you don’t want to miss if you love a lot of metalcore bands now.

[falloutbradreviews]

Defences - Shadowlight

Throughout this year, I’ve talked about a lot of what I’ve come to call “Octanecore,” which is the nickname I give to metal and hard-rock bands that are primed for Sirius XM Octane. These bands have a similar sound, but it’s not a sound I totally mind, either. They all are in the realm of hard-rock, metalcore, or alt-metal. Sometimes they’re all three, or they specialize in one, but they have elements of all three. You could argue that certain bands are Octanecore, but they’ve been grandfathered into the name. You could call any metal band with catchy hooks “Octanecore,” but I think ever since bands like Spiritbox and Bad Omens got big a few years back, a lot of these bands are popping up.

If they aren’t popping up, they’re changing their sound to fit that mold. Both Beartooth and Wage War are two bands that morphed into that sound over the past few years. Nonetheless, a lot of bands have been popping up with that sound, or some semblance to it, including English outfit Defences. Apparently this band has been around since 2017, but this is my first time listening to them, specifically with their third album, Shadowlight. I read a review of the album, and had an idea of what to expect, but after listening to it, I was pleasantly surprised, although this album isn’t perfect. I don’t necessarily love this thing, but Shadowlight is pretty good.

They really take the Octanecore sound, as well as a shade of R&Bcore in the vein of Issues. and do something rather fun with it. Their brand of Octanecore is pretty generic, but it’s done well for what it is. There aren’t any moments that really blew me away, but there were a lot of moments I enjoyed. What’s sort of disappointing, however, is that despite the band having two vocalists, and both of them being very good (seriously, they’re wonderful), there aren’t that many memorable hooks here. It’s a shame, because the vocals are really good, but there’s not much done with them.

The heavier moments are pretty cool, but they’re also generic and nothing special, so I don’t know how to feel about it. They’re not bad, and they’re enjoyable, but a lot of the bands I mentioned in the beginning have this same sound, only better. That’s kind of harsh to say, especially where this band has been around for as long as those bands have (and possibly longer), but this is relatively generic stuff that doesn’t go above and beyond.

I will say, however, that it’s worth hearing if you enjoy this sound, and if you can’t get enough bands like it. They do have an interesting edge with some R&Bcore sounds and influences showing up every now and again, especially with the slow and moody “Inspirit,” which really shows off the vocals and the slower side of this band. The R&B elements don’t show up much, or they’re very fleeting when they do, but that would a cool element for them to explore in future albums. It would definitely set them apart, especially with Issues being gone now, and there’s a hole to fill in that vein. I like this album, but this band needs that knockout song or album to really get people to look at them as something more than a knockoff.

[falloutbradreviews]

Sleep Theory - Paper Hearts / Post Profit - Self Defeater

We’re about a few weeks into the new year and not much has come out yet, so I’m just biding my time until a new album comes out that I’d like to really talk about, but I do have a couple of EPs that I’d like to talk about briefly. I feel very similarly about both of these EPs, but I’ll get to that in a second. These EPs are the debut EP from Sleep Theory, entitled Paper Hearts, and the new EP (and label debut) from Post Profit, entitled Self Defeater. Who are these bands exactly? I’m sure you’re wondering, as these two bands aren’t very popular… Yet. That’s the key word. They have the potential, but I feel similarly about both of these EPs in the sense that they have that potential, but these are both lacking a unique flavor, per se.

Okay, let’s break these down briefly, starting with Sleep Theory. Sleep Theory is a band from Memphis, of all places, that combines metalcore, alt-metal, nu-metal, and pop/R&B. If this sounds like something familiar, you’re not wrong. This is basically the Issues formula, and I mentioned this band in my tribute to that band from a few days ago, and how this band keeps that “R&Bcore” sound alive. These guys have a vocalist with a pop and R&B-sounding voice, and they use that to incorporate catchier and groovier textures that you would find in an Issues record. I saw a review of Paper Hearts that described this band as Linkin Park if they liked R&B, instead of hip-hop, and that makes a lot of sense. Instead of rapping and hip-hop beats, they use R&B sounds and vocals, but they also use metalcore, alt-metal, and nu-metal sounds.

Post Profit, on the other hand, is a hard-rock / alt-metal band from Longview, Texas, and they’re basically bringing back the 90s and 00s style of alt-metal, hard-rock, and post-grunge that was popular at the time, but they aren’t doing too much that separates them from the pack. At least other than have a modernized version of it, which is good, and they are a band that executes that sound well. They have a great vocalist as well, and their musicianship is very good and versatile. They have some heavier moments throughout their new EP, and their debut for Sharptone, Self Defeater, but they do have a debut album from 2022. Personally, it’s a good record, but I haven’t gone back to it much, because their debut is very rough around the edges in spots, and it feels way too long. This EP, however, has better and stronger songwriting, and it’s shorter, obviously. The debut just felt repetitive, versus being memorable, and hard hitting, despite a handful of songs having some cool moments in them. The EP shows more of that potential, however, but it still shows their limitations, as this EP is generic alt-metal with some heavier moments and solid hooks / vocal work. It’s just nothing you haven’t heard before.

That’s the best way to describe both of these EPs, as they’re both really good, but they’re lacking something that makes them stick out. Sleep Theory sounds a lot like Issues, which is cool, but what makes them different? They do have good hooks, and they sound like they’re primed to take over rock radio, but at the expense of sounding unique. Post Profit executes their brand of alt-metal quite well, but if you enjoy Alice In Chains, Deftones, and a lot of other bands in that vein, you’ll like this, too. The biggest takeaway I want from this piece is that these bands are good, and they have potential, but these are merely just humble beginnings that could propel the band to do more unique and interesting things. They’re worth listening to if you’re interested.