Album review: Chastity – Chastity

Chastity's fourth album is emotional, vulnerable, and in your face, a powerful record that feels most appropriate when listened to when feeling a bit lost and stuck in your place in the world.

The band cherry-pick from traditional flourishes of emo, punk, shoegaze and melodic hardcore, stringing them all together to make their first non-conceptual record. It spans a multitude of genres and identities as the band find the most emotive way to express the trials and tribulations so prominently in everyday life.

The poignancy is palpable in the tone of each song, as vocalist Brandon Williams soars through tales of despair, darkness and redemption. Addressing the mundane, compared to the band’s three previous records, it's reminiscent of everything lovable of 2000s emo. Tracks like Jaw Locked, Teeth On The Curb Looking Up At The World, There Are Missing Years dance around the beloved genre, celebrating it, amongst their occasional breakdowns and shouted vocals.

The guitars shine, pristine and punchy in parts and deep and distorted in others. Taking inspiration and elements of punk and melodic hardcore, Buzzed and Bleach and Electrical Tower Drive demonstrate the band exploring further, offering punk and raunchy riffs. Offing, Life Less Severe and Demons In The House bloom with flowery guitars and moody basslines and The Dark Circles Around My Eyes pounds with thudding drums and dynamic riffs.

Chastity explore the realm of modern emo and what it means to be a modern band, exploring sounds on the periphery amongst finding a new, nonfictional identity. It showcases the most lovable aspects of emo – shouting from the gut, a whine here and there – alongside some killer punk drum tracks, and good ol’ fashioned breakdowns from melodic metalcore. A glorious, moody album.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Touché Amoré, Tigers Jaw, Fiddlehead

Chastity is released on September 13 via Big Scary Monsters