Metalcore is back in a big way, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.
You can say what you want about the resurgence of metalcore, but it never really left. Musically, it has shifted more along the veins of "metallic hardcore," but the subgenre has very much shifted back into its metalcore-rooted metastasis.
This is Savannah, Georgia-based crushers Vatican come into play. These straight edge, nonreligious, dudes are not fucking around. As their press release says, "Vatican operates at the apex of dichotomy." Which is true, I guess, because the press release also makes it sound like they hate themselves as much as Thou.
That's not a bad thing, because bands that can transfer that kind of pain and anger on stage and in a recording studio are on another kind of plane of existence. And turns out, that type of emotion really resonates with people. Vatican's new EP, Ache of Eternity, sees the two-year-old band coming into their own, as they've already amassed two albums and multiple splits.
The album, which is due out August 25 via Sorrow Carrier Records, is a doozy for anyone that worships Zao, Poison the Well, It Dies Today, etc. Can't deny there is a huge Swedish death metal influence in there, somewhere, either. Today, you can listen to this tasty jam, "Dreamer's Bodybag," that retains is energy until its unrelenting fury seeps into your heart and tugs on your emotions.
"I wrote this song to reflect my love for the melodic, mournful side of metalcore," says vocalist Jonathan Whittle. "While writing this, I pictured myself as a ghost, roaming in slow motion and trying to win in the tug of war between depression and love: knowing the potential for greatness in being emotionally intimate with someone but being aware of how it could all come tumbling down if I lost that person.
"The lyrics focus on the latter, reminding myself to never forget that possibility but to not let it take over and descend into total apathy. The line, ‘Your sorrow saved me from my final descent,’ is me telling myself that every moment of sadness I felt strengthened me and made it so that loss crashing down wouldn’t crush me.”
You can pre-order Ache of Eternity on Bandcamp for $5 here.
