album, Laugh Tracks, takes the beatdown sound of the past and infuses it with 808 type bass drops and the hardest pre-breakdown calls to come out of hardcore in the past decade. Their follow up album, A Different Shade of Blue, and latest EP, A Tear in the Fabric of Life, take this sound and continue in the band’s path of brutally cathartic lyrics with their fun beatdown riff-style. Knocked Loose fights a tradition of toxic masculinity present in past beatdown hardcore bands with emotionally vulnerable lyrics, and through their actions advocating for women’s centers with their merch drives. The modern metallic harcore scene’s fighting of previously imposed barriers for marginalized groups are part of what makes this scene so special. Knocked Loose is just one example of a band that is working to correct this scene’s troubled history. Another band fighting the norms of beatdown and hardcore in general is Sharptooth. Their debut album, Clever Girl, is a politically charged whiplash focusing on themes of oppression and retaliation to said oppressors. Lead singer Lauren Kashan has gnarly screams and the stage presence of a 20 foot giant stomping through the woods as she runs across the stage. Her lyrics forge a connection with the audience that is unparalleled. This band is very underrated and needs more attention, so check them out if you like a more classic hardcore style that is infused with the modern beatdown type metallic hardcore. Some other related bands to check out are: ◆ Jesus Piece (straight beatdown, politically charged lyrics) ◆ Code Orange (more metalcore-ish) ◆ Great American Ghost (brutal riffs, more beatdown) ◆ SeeYouSpaceCowboy (mathcore) ◆ Vein (mathcore adjacent) ◆ Converge (progenitors of modern mathcore type hardcore)
Image: Billy Bratton
Placing Denzel Curry’s 2022 Melt My Eyez See Your Future Henry Holcomb
Known best for his hit track that got everyone flipping water bottles in middle school, Denzel Curry has changed a lot since releasing Ultimate in 2015. Also known as Zel, the artist continues to step across genres and assert himself as a worthy figure in the current rap scene with his newest project Melt My Eyez See Your Future. Traditionally distinguished within the rap industry with his signature expressions of punk rap and rap metal, Curry has expanded sonically with a creative wielding of soul, alternative, and electronic sounds. Over the last several years, Curry’s participation in projects across genres both demonstrates his growth as an artist and shows a larger trend in the contemporary music scene as artists respond to an increasingly digitized market.
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With the rapid rise of Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services, artists across the music industry have adapted their strategies and sound to achieve success. As publishing creative projects online have become widely accessible, standing out within an increasingly crowded scene has continued to become more difficult for artists everywhere. Furthermore, the ways in which the public consume music have changed dramatically; instead of listening to projects in full as physical materials consumers have shifted their behaviors to more playlist-oriented patterns. Songs blow up, and are thrown on corresponding playlists or forgotten as the masses shift to the newest hot tracks. Now with subscription based streaming services, consumers have no obligation to listen to the larger album of a charting track, which has now effectively been reconceptualized
