Review Summary: For not wanting "to be touring with these bargain bin fucking deathcore bands", there sure are a lot of breakdowns. The irony is really just unnecessary.
Why did
Code Orange take the "Kids" off of their name? It probably sounded cooler with it. Do they have something to prove? Did they want you to know that they were a dark, heavy band on the edge and about to break? Would they not accept any other interpretation and elected instead to beat listeners over the head with just how mature and brooding they've become? Regardless of how much of that is assumption or projection, Code Orange have embraced a much more straightforward sound than what they started with in the days of Cycles and Love Is Love/Return to Dust.
The 90 degree shift started with I Am King and continues on Forever. Instead of being who they were before, subtly demonstrating Converge-isms in that particular brand of metalcore, the group have resorted instead to aping the sounds of groove heavy bands like Disembodied and Martyr AD with flashes of dark industrial and grunge. The sound is still youthful, moody, and angst driven, but with an emphasis on fairly tasteful, if overabundant, breakdowns and insistent darkness. While not particularly original, they at least picked a sound that is pretty much unused in the modern metalcore landscape(Where the hell is the album at, Amia Venera?). The production is deafening, roided out, super compressed, and thick thanks to Kurt Ballou's ever excellent work at Godcity (He just has a monopoly on heavy records at this point.), but what lies beneath the knobs and mics? How good are the actual songs?
Code Orange put their best foot forward, kicking off with it's title track. This may be strongest heavy track on the album. It opens with an ominously filtered voice whispering evil nothings before casting you headlong into the Drop B tuned chugs and pick scrapes. Drummer and current front man Jami Morgan pounds away in his signature simple, primal style while belting out his much improved but still mush-mouthy screams compared to past releases. These screams are bolstered by the even more impressive growls of axeman Eric Baldrose. A standout and somewhat dynamic moment is when the guitars drop out and the very distorted bass and drums groove together, complete with ambient noise and vocals. This is one of the few moments in the album where the bass has anything to contribute besides texture.
Say what you will, the band has definitely developed a flair for creating a fairly suffocating, violent atmosphere in their current stage. As with many other songs on the tracklist, this track is full of auxiliary electronics, feedback, noise that help add dynamics and drive home the intended darkness of the record. After a faster breakdown, they use one of their signature build ups to lead into one of their signature (wait for it) SLOWER breakdowns. As trite as a move like this may be, the group do manage to conjure some nice syncopation and heaviness in this section.
Other single "Kill the Creator" opens with a more upbeat, thrashy section, but it isn't long before the breakdowns start again. An uncredited 2000's hardcore vocalist (It doesn't matter which one you pick) makes an admirable appearance on one of the them. After further wall to wall slamming, it ends with more pleasant atmosphere: some simple and ominous guitar arpeggios and flashes of harsh noise.
"Real" opens with some heavy riffing and solid double bass work, before transitioning into a strange 808 assisted drum break that feels vaguely like nu metal. It calls to mind some of the electronic experimentation that The Body did on 2016's No One Deserves Happiness, to markedly better effect. After a solid mid-paced romp with light blastbeats, listener's are treated to a kiddish, Emmure level mosh call: "This is real now...MOTHER***ER!" This is just in case you needed to know when to start flailing your arms around in your bedroom or start spin kicking girls in the front row of a venue. Still, the breakdown is pretty good. Before they can get too extremely one dimensional they throw a slight curve ball in "Bleeding the Blur".
"Bleeding the Blur" is a good grunge flavored track, occupying a similar space as tracks like "Dreams in Inertia" on I Am King. It makes excellent use of guitarist Reba Meyers very palatable clean vocals. There's an actual clean intro and solid guitar leads on it as well. Surprisingly, a decent solo even graces the track. The other grunge track, "Ugly" is also a standout, featuring watery, upbeat vocals over washed out guitars.
Much of "The Mud" manages to churn forward like a menacing death machine. The consistent pace and tone, juxtaposed with mechanical grooves, a solid ambient section, and more industrial influences, make this track another one of the stronger outings when it's not breaking down.
After a while it starts to become apparent that Code Orange have exhausted most of their songwriting abilities by the mid point of the album. There are the occasional moments of difference such as the stylish tom grooves, momentary speedy drumming, and flashes of electronics on "Spy" or the stronger songwriting aforementioned "Ugly".
"Hurt Goes On" is an exercise in some sort of nu-industrial that cries that the band wanted to do something different but didn't know how. Jami Morgan reaches new levels of dull edge with his Mike Shinoda like delivery and super artful utterance of "I wanna hurt you mentally." The ending does a bit better with a pounding "one, two" beat carrying forth cascading walls of noise and screaming. Well textured ambient synths close the track well.
"dream2" proves that Code Orange are best when they are trying to experiment, even if it doesn't always work. It seems to be thematically tied to the "Dreams in Inertia" from the last album. There are lightly layered clean vocals and introspective guitar leads, with percussion being surprisingly sparse. Despite what sound like slightly cheesy lyrics about being part of a soul eating family, the track is a needed moment of clarity and melodicism as the grunge tracks before were. However, instead of having a grand build up or final act, the song literally just ends with next to no warning. It just cuts out, as if it earned that or something. That's the album.
What do you really say? Code Orange come through with probably the heaviest yet somehow most unsatisfying release they've put forth yet. Some might call it sludgy but these are all slow breakdowns, not real sludge. The songwriting is hindered by the fact that most of the songs are built around the breakdowns instead of being built to be strong at all times. Is there fun to be had? Certainly. If you're looking to turn your brain off for with some massive breakdowns, this is where it's at. If you don't mind some solid grunge tracks, they're here for you. Do you want some actual artful, nuanced metalcore? This probably isn't it. I hope they can actually mature when they mature for the next record.
Recommended tracks: Forever, Bleeding the Blur, The Mud, Ugly, dream2,
