London melodic hardcore upstarts Death Of Youth shove their fist into your chest and twist on wrenching debut Nothing Is The Same Anymore.
Death Of Youth understand great screamo. Much more than throat-shredding vocals and bantamweight post-hardcore riffs balancing melody and melancholy, it’s a subgenre built on bristling intelligence and the depth of feeling inside. Rough edges abound on the Londoners’ stony debut Nothing Is The Same Anymore, but its heart is very much where it needs to be.
Temptation must be there to slip into self-awareness and irony. Three decades since Saetia pioneered the sound, and at least 10 years down the line from the likes of Touché Amoré and La Dispute perfecting its modern form, even early song titles like Desensitised and Rumination could be seen as playing directly to ‘sad boy’ stereotype. Fortunately, they unfold with all the courage of their convictions. The former dredges a modern psyche, before the latter explodes in a rapturous 109-seconds of cerebral chaos and catharsis.
Fix Your Heart Or Die adds more meat to the bone. Challenging repeated governments’ trampling of trans rights with an opening declaration that sticks at the back of your mind – ‘Searching for a scapegoat as the ground crumbles beneath your feet / Whipping up a panic over a group just trying to live their lives’ – its relative accessibility is its greatest strength. Bystander and The Inverse Of Patriotism are more overtly political, in which a sample from JFK’s famous ‘Pax Americana’ address calls to mind classic 65daysofstatic.
Rocketing to the finish line, Invertebrate and Performance Art increase the bludgeon at the expense of subtlety. But then the faintly eerie ambience of Castle Rock’s mourning the loss of a childhood friend and the title-track’s broader paean to the loss of innocence itself drop curtain with real weight. It’s a compelling sign-off.
Whether Death Of Youth can define their identity and deepen their sound sufficiently to last the distance will be fascinating to see. For now, though, they’ve proven their dark pool of nightmares and dreamscapes is worth dipping into.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: Touché Amoré, Departures, La Dispute
Nothing Is The Same Anymore is out now via Engineer/Cat’s Claw
