#Royal Coda

[windowsmillennium2000]

hail the sun button set

available in holographic as well c:

[a-bunch-of-bones]

Swancore is such an "incestuous friendgroup" genre like I swear you could give me any two performers' names and I could limit them to 2 degrees of separation. If I included tours I could probably bring it down to 1.

[thisaintascenereviews]

Royal Coda - To Only A Few At First “Swancore” is one of the weirdest “styles” of music I’ve ever heard, but I understand its appeal to an extent. What am I referring to? Well, Swancore steams from guitarist Will Swan, whom you may know as the guitarist of post-hardcore band Dance Gavin Dance, but Swan has branched out his “cinematic universe” with other bands, including the band I’m going to be talking about today (as he joined the band a few years ago), as well as starting a record label for a lot of these bands (Blue Swan Records to be exact). The issue I have with this kind of music is that it all sounds the same, hence the name “Swancore.” A lot of bands under this label sound exactly a lot, including wonky guitar riffs, a post-hardcore meets progressive-rock, dual screaming and clean vocals (especially vocals with a pop / R&B inflection, similar to Tilian Pearson, Kurt Travis, and the like), and nonsensical lyrics that don’t have any rhyme or reason. There are tons of bands that follow this formula, and while a lot of them are talented, it’s just that they all sound alike. People really seem to love these bands, though, especially Dance Gavin Dance. I just reviewed their new album, Jackpot Juicer, and I have mixed feelings on it, but it’s a decent album overall. I enjoyed parts of it, but it was way too long for its own good, and showed the band running out of ideas (although they’ve been doing that for the last few years, honestly). Coincidentally, another band on the Swancore roster, Royal Coda, was slated to release their third album the same week that I ended up reviewing Jackpot Juicer, so I was rather intrigued by it. I’m a fan of Royal Coda, first and foremost, and out of the “Swancore” bands, they’re one of the better ones. Fronted by former Dance Gavin Dance and A Lot Like Birds vocalist, Kurt Travis is at the helm of these guys, including Sergio Medina, and Will Swan himself, but they made their debut in 2018 with a self-titled record that I thought was pretty good, but not great. It was a very generic post-hardcore record, and it was cool, but nothing I couldn’t get from these other bands. I went back and listened to their second album, 2019′s Compassion, and liked that one a lot more, because I hadn’t heard it yet. It was a very good album, and it had more of a funk / R&B-inspired sound, which would make sense, considering that Kurt Travis was in the band Eternity Forever with the guitarist of Strawberry Girls, and they had a funky sound that I really liked. They broke up after a single EP, unfortunately, but this is almost the spiritual successor to that band. Their third album, To Only A Few At First, seems to continue this idea of having a post-hardcore meets funk sound. To put it simply, this is a really good album, but I haven’t been going back to it that much. I did mention in my review of Jackpot Juicer that this album is better than that one, and I agree with that still. This record is a lot shorter, only 38 minutes, and it’s a lot more cohesive in its tone and sound. That’s kind of the problem, though; this album is kind of one note, and it’s extremely catchy or memorable in terms of individual songs. Everything about this album is pretty good, though; Travis’ vocals are great, definitely some of the best that I’ve heard from him ever, and the guitarwork is great, too, including some really solid grooves. I love how the album is pretty short, like I said, but it does blend together a little bit. If anything, it shows Swancore’s issues that a lot of these bands tend to have, but it’s also one of the better albums I’ve heard recently. It’s a solid little post-hardcore with funk and progressive tones, so it’s a lot of fun to listen to. I just haven’t gone back to it as much as I’ve wanted to, unfortunately, but it’s worth hearing if you’re a fan of Kurt Travis, Will Swan, or any of that stuff. People tend to go nuts over anything Will Swan does, and like I said in the beginning, I kind of understand it, but when everything sounds the same, I don’t really get it, so I don’t know, folks. If you’re a diehard fan of any of these guys, or these bands, you’re going to enjoy this. Hell, you probably already do, and I’m sure you’ve been listening to it for the last week since it’s been out, but I wouldn’t say this is one of my top ten favorites of the year. I really enjoyed it, but it’s nothing necessarily special, either. I like the funkier tones that it has throughout it, but the album’s never catchy enough to keep me engaged throughout its shorter runtime. It’s groovy, but there’s not enough catchy melodies or hooks to really hit a home run for me. All in all, though, there’s enough to enjoy, especially if you’re not familiar with Royal Coda or the Swancore sound. This is a great introduction to this band, and it’s easily their best, so hopefully they keep going and they throw some catchier and more accessible hooks in their sound next time around.

[clunge]

Royal Coda - Screen Time Overload

[mitchy-bae]

Man this song is soooooo good; very easy listening. Love Kurt's voice here.

[photo-lobotomy]

𝘙𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘭 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘢

𝘐𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘻𝘢

𝘕𝘠𝘊

8.14.22

[jonmesseatingglass]

Absolute beautiful work of art. Incredible

[mystery-fish-17]

Eeeyyugghhhh wwwehhhhh *sniff* eyuup fehh eheh *whimper* bwaaaggg heeeeep

[a-fix-of-muses]

Currently Listening To: "Insatiate, The Senses" by Royal Coda

[moonstonediaz]

none of this is surprising except for the minutes listened 😳

[erenjaegerb0mbs]

Can you tell me what to do

Before I lose my mind?

[thisaintascenereviews]

Dance Gavin Dance - Jackpot Juicer Dance Gavin Dance has had a pretty rough year, haven’t they? After longtime bassist Tim Feerick unexpectedly passed away earlier this year, longtime vocalist Tilian Pearson stepped away in June after some sexual misconduct accusations. Frankly, that soured my excitement for upcoming album Jackpot Juicer. I didn’t really listen to 2020′s Afterburner much when that came out, mainly because I didn’t listen to a lot of new music that year, but DGD is a band that’s been running on fumes for awhile now. I really enjoyed 2018′s Artificial Selection, because they brought in some funk elements to their sound after being so stagnant for years, but they’ve just been cranking out the same albums for years now. The sad part about it is that DGD is one of the most influential and important post-hardcore / math-rock bands of the last twenty years. Their debut EP, 2006′s Whatever I Say Is Royal Ocean, kickstarted a movement within the genre. Firstly, it introduced former vocalist Jonny Craig into the world of post-hardcore, but its sound was very fresh and exciting. A lot of bands would go onto cop that sound, including what’s now deemed “Swancore,” but at the time, DGD were a new band. Albums like 2007′s Downtown Battle Mountain and 2009′s Happiness (their second and last album with Kurt Travis) are classics within the genre, and even some of their first records with Tilian Pearson are great, but they’re not a band known for experimentation or innovation. DGD are a band with a sound that they stick to, and to be fair, I get why, because it works. Their fans are utterly rabid, and they worship the ground they walk on, for whatever reason, so they’ll gladly hear the same album done a million times. In a sense, there’s nothing wrong with bands sticking to what they know, but it becomes a problem later on, especially when you’re a band that was known for being innovative and interesting. Now they just sound like a former shell of themselves, and Jackpot Juicer really displays that, unfortunately. I’ve been going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to talk about this record, because it’s one of those albums that I like a lot when I’m listening to it, but the minute I turn it off, I forgot almost everything I heard, minus a few key and important moments that were really good. Part of the problem with this album right off the bat is that it’s eighteen songs and 63 minutes long. That’s the longest DGD album to date, but there’s no reason this album needed to be that long. It’s almost like this album never ends. I’ll look and see how far I’m into it, and I still have ten songs left, when that should be the entire album right there. Its runtime wouldn’t be an issue if the songs themselves were interesting enough, meaning that they justify the runtime, because they don’t. I hate to say it, but this album is kind of boring. It’s not boring musically speaking, but it’s clear that DGD are just writing the same songs over and over again. Everything sounds rather impressive, whether it’s Pearson’s clean vocals that are some of the best I’ve ever heard, Jonathan Mess’s screaming vocals that are always on point, or the guitatwork from Will Swan, but it all comes together in a very forgettable way, especially when everything blends together. Every song on this album sounds like the last one, and if that’s what you want, that’s great, but it becomes an issue when there’s no variety or diversity here at all. That’s the reason I’ve been wrestling with reviewing this album now; everything on here sounds great, but is it worth there being no variety at all? It’s an hour of the same song, just tweaked a little bit each time, and even then, this is a gimmick they’ve had for years. I’ll admit that they do sprinkle in some pop-rock / R&B elements here and there, thanks to the vocals, as well as guitarist Andrew Wells (also of Eidola) providing some clean vocals, too, so it’s a bit of a new dynamic (honestly, if the band kept him as their lead vocalist, I’d be very interested to hear what they do next), but that’s it. The music itself is still the same, so there’s nothing new or interesting there, and it just bores me after awhile. I really wanted to like this album more, but due to Pearson’s unfortunate exit, and the album just being a snoozefest when it comes to its length and its lack of diversity, I don’t care for this as much as I wanted to. It’s sad, because I used to love DGD, and I still do, but they’re running out of ideas. At the very least, they’re complacent with doing the same thing and sounding the same on each record. Honestly, if you want a better album with this same sound that just came out a couple of weeks later, peep the new Royal Coda record, To Only A Few At First, which just came out over the weekend. That’s the newest band from former vocalist Kurt Travis, and it’s got a very similar sound, but done in a much better way. I’ll talk about that album later this week, most likely, but I really love it. Jackpot Juicer isn’t outright bad, it’s actually great in small doses, but that’s the key -- small doses. If this album were about 15 to 20 minutes shorter, I’d love it a lot more, but as it stands, it’s okay, just really boring and very complacent from a band that is capable of a lot better.

[album-a-day-project]

7/27/22

Royal Coda

To Only A Few At First

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A recommendation. Not metal, but emo. Something that I would be a bit more interested in 13 years ago, but not so much now. Good melodies and singing. I can't identify with this as much anymore, but still something that is good to get back into. Somehow it doesn't feel dated as much considering this album is from this year. A fresh take to emo.

5/10

[mitchy-bae]

Dude this song is so good!