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Blood Youth

Starve

Written by: PP on 22/04/2019 21:50:45

British hardcore newcomers Blood Youth offer a slightly different twist to the genre than their melodic hardcore counterparts on sophomore album "Starve". On paper, describing them as throaty screams meet anthemic post-hardcore cleans is somewhat accurate, but that would suggest they fit right in with the likes of Stick To Your Guns or The Ghost Inside. But where the latter two bands rely on lingering guitar melodies that are often intricate by their nature, Blood Youth go in the opposite direction and opt for nu-metal style, open-ended riffs similar to how both Linkin Park and Slipknot did on their early records. They also throw in the occasional electronics and effects that work as a direct throwback to the early 2000s nu-metal scene ("Waste Away" could've arguably been on "Hybrid Theory").

But that's just about where the nu-metal parallels end. From a vocal perspective, Blood Youth go for a brutal hardcore bark in verses (no doubt inspired by their previous band Climates) and supplement it with clean vocal choruses albeit without resorting to the emo-influenced, high-pitched style like many of their colleagues. The guitars vary between ultra-heavy beatdown hardcore and crunchily distorted, but implausibly heavy riffs that feel simplistic but therefore also help to make the choruses incredibly catchy. Together, it creates an interesting mix that feels part hardcore, part melodic hardcore, and part nu-metal without ever really firmly planting a foot in any of the genres as such.

"Starve" as such is a rather quirky submission to the hardcore realm. Genre purists are likely to dismiss it outright, while nu-metal fans may find its brutalized soundscape too harsh to absorb despite pretty much every song featuring a sing-along chorus. But at the very least it attempts something new and succeeds in pushing the genre boundaries further out. More importantly, it contains tracks like "Starve", "Cut Me Open", "Waste Away", and many others that feature spine-chilling choruses, two-steppable breakdowns, brutal soundscapes and yet, somehow, an infectiously catchy soundscape that stems from the combination of nu-metal and hardcore.

Download: Starve, Cut Me Open, Waste Away
For the fans of: Stick To Your Guns, (old) Linkin Park, Slipknot
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Release date 22.02.2019
Rude Records