Label: Pure Noise Records
Released: 16th November 2018
Rating: ★★★★
Some things don’t pass. For Chris LoPorto in particular, the storm clouds are starting to draw in. If last year’s debut ‘Fail You Again’ felt like a cry of defiance, then this rapid follow-up’s themes of evil and malevolence seem more like an admission of defeat.
There is an immediate urgency to the opener ‘What Have We Done’, a new, harder edge present to LoPorto’s vocals as he screams “We’re all evil”. There is the sense of a man who has spent many a long night examining himself, with real moments of introspection peppered throughout ‘This Too Won’t Pass’. With an honest appraisal of his failings and the reality of his behaviours, every emotion has been written and roared out for the world to see. He has never sounded rawer.
The music is at times frenetic and furious as if trying to outpace the painful memories that still haunt. ‘My Queen’ is classic emo, the hairs on the back of your neck rising as the track accelerates towards the end. The record’s middle section is particularly heavy in tone, with talk that “The devil has come and we’re his for the taking” during ‘Malicious 444′ and a recognition that “The evil’s here to stay” in ‘Not The Way It Was’. It doesn’t ever quite feel that LoPorto has given up all hope, yet it skirts painfully close at times.
A powerful and energetic record that deals in universal truths rather than cliches, it doesn’t say that everything will be ok in the end. It promises something more important instead. It promises that this band and this record will be there with you through thick and thin, feeling every single part of the same pain.
