Following the foundations of 2015 heavyweight debut Blueprints, 2017 follow-up Deadweight saw the first real embrace and experimentation with melody. Decamping cross continent to work with producer Drew Fulk (whose credits are as varied as Motionless In White, Lil Peep and iDKHOW) in Los Angeles, this record sees them branch out into far broader territory, from vicious hardcore to borderline pop.
“LA is one of those cities where everyone is hungry,” Briton quips, with a knowing twinkle. “Out there you get inspired. Everyone wants to be the next big thing.”
He’s quick to defuse any sense of impudent big-headedness. It’s just a matter of maturity.
“We’re all still big metalheads, but as we’re getting older, we’re not blasting metal every day. We’re exploring a lot of different stuff.”
“I’m a big pop-country fan,” admits Cody. “I listen to a lot of Florida Georgia Line. I know it’s forbidden within the metal scene, but I love Justin Bieber, too. In 2019 everyone’s listening to everything and people are questioning the limits of what metalcore can be. That’s a healthy thing. Expand the genre, create your own sound and leave your own mark on it.”
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And what of those tiresome, inevitable accusations of ‘selling-out’, we wonder? The band understand that evolution is necessary for survival. For every fan bogged down in another time, there are new converts waiting to be won.
“Some friends of mine know I’m in a heavy band,” grins Briton, with the relish of a general winning the field. “But maybe they’ve never really listened to Wage War. Then they hear this newer stuff and like it. They get that metalcore bug and start digging deeper and deeper.”
“If you’re a heavy band, the safe bet is to just write the heaviest songs,” Cody underlines the point with refreshing bluntness. “In a way, the safest move would’ve been to simply write our heaviest record yet, but that’s just not what we wanted. We definitely feel like our time is upon us, but that isn’t going to change what we do. We want to make metalcore more accessible than ever, so that people who don’t normally listen to the genre can listen to this and realise they like it.
“This is the music we grew up on,” Cody stresses passionately. “That’s why we want to help keep it alive.”