Review Summary: I'm so sorry
I'm not a fan of this brand of metalcore/post-hardcore; in fact, I loathe it. I look back fondly to the early to mid 2000s when core bands had actual guitar riffs, and the entire high end wasn't dominated by electronics and overproduced clean vocals. It's funny because people that were into late 90s to early 2000s core look down on the era I love the same way I look down on this era. I'm getting besides the point here, but anyway I was 99% certain I would hate this record, but I gave it the old harvard try anyway. Issues are the epitome of today's metalcore scene, they chug along with that trendy djent guitar sound, they have two singers (cuz duh, what does your band have, only one singer? loser) they use whatever electronic sounds are currently trending, and they employ borderline bubblegum pop vocal melodies. I read Alternative Press' review for this which proclaimed Issues as "the future of metalcore." Now if this is true there has to be some sort of merit here right? I feel like this is going to sound unprofessional and pretentious, but this album is simply objectively terrible. Issues have managed to craft an album that is entirely without any sort of value, appeal, artistic merit, creativity, and if this is the future of metalcore, then I am very afraid.
So apparently "the future of metalcore" can't just be metalcore, you have to throw in a bunch of trendy genres into the mix seemingly at random. Issues inject their brand of monotonous chugging with elements of R&B, hip-hop, EDM, and nu-metal, and it's almost comical the way Issues are able to fail miserably at so many different genres. Mixing Limp Bizkit esque rapping and turntables with Justin Bieber knockoff vocals, an instrumental/hip-hop/dubstep interlude, and the same, stale djenty chug riff in every single song seems like a cruel joke, and maybe Issues just picked genres out of a hat, or perhaps they made the worst album they could possibly make on a lost bet, or maybe, just maybe, Issues are post-modern geniuses who have made this album ironically as a stab at the current metalcore scene knowing damn well it could be the worst album ever and still get a four review from Alt Press and be proclaimed the future of metalcore.
Since Issues have absolutely nothing going on instrumentally, they rely on singer Tyler Carter to carry the weight. Tyler is a technically talented singer, but the overproduction added to his voice coupled with his stale, repetitive melodies and lyrics don't add up to any memorable hooks worth mentioning. Tyler Carter is essentially Johnny Craig through a computer minus the songwriting ability.
Here are some simple facts about Issues: they have as many members as Michael Jordan has rings, their guitarist doesn't realize he can use the top three strings of his guitar, nu-metal hasn't been relevant in ten years, mixing genres at random does not count as experimentation, Tyler Carter really should not rap, oh and I ***ing despise this record.
