Album Review: Groundculture – How Well Do You Really Know Yourself?

As alternative culture infiltrates the upper echelons of the mainstream – platinum pop icons like Billie Eilish and Post Malone are quick to profess their love for punk and metal, packaging much of that aesthetic into their mass-marketed product – rock representation for real outsiders feels like an increasingly precious commodity.

Newcastle Upon Tyne quintet Groundculture are out to address the deficit. Their rousing debut LP How Well Do You Really Know Yourself? is a record that reaches with open arms to the black sheep and underdogs of our world, encouraging them to cherish the differences within – and it’s all the more gleefully rough-edged, unapologetically awkward and breathlessly intriguing for it.

Full-throttle opener Life Won’t Wait initially wrong-foots us. An archetypically affirmative hardcore banger with its ponderous chorus and final-third bridge sounding like they’ve been nicked from early '00s alt. rock, it’s a surging but unspectacular opener. Lead single and obvious standout REALEYES immediately shifts through the gears, though. Piling woozy synth samples into the fist-swinging mix and beginning to filter in nu-metal inflections, its earworm chorus (‘Nothing matters when you close your eyes / Nothing matters when you realise time’s on your side!’) cuts straight to the heart of the record’s defiant message and lays bare what could make Groundculture great.

Then 18 evokes Meteora-era Linkin Park with a deep, pulsating electronic beat, nu-metal guitars and half-rapped lyrics. What could’ve come on like a pale imitation is brought vividly to life with injections of that North Eastern attitude, keeping one eye on more primitive punch for a compelling evolution of the Los Angelenos’ Hybrid Theory.

The hectically woven pattern of crunching crossover influence and indomitable rebellion extends across most of the ten tellingly titled tracks on show. Trauma Can Teach adds in atmospheric elements of The Ghost Inside and Funeral For A Friend for a furious ode to those who’ve ‘forgotten to fight for [their] dreams.’ Unbreakable piles along with the momentum of a runaway train: tense six-strings throughout dragging it towards a cataclysmic catharsis. Free Fall is an arms-in-the-air ballad that could be a forgotten off-cut from Bring Me The Horizon’s Sempiternal era.

Penultimate track Dream Like A Child stands apart, however. A collaboration with vocalist Philip Strand of Swedish alt. metalcore stars Normandie, it is a far more straightforwardly anthemic offering. On a lesser release, this detour into the kind of high-sheen melody being peddled by so many contemporaries could feel stock. In amongst HWDYRKY’s claustrophobic corners and rough edges, though, it stands in airy relief.

Coupled with the sweet, (ever so slightly) Eastern-tinged acoustic of closer 1974, it feels like a finely distilled parting showcase of the range of instrumental skill and deft songwriting at Groundculture’s disposal. As long as they continue to channel those strengths into outsider ideas, this fire will spread.

A powerful new voice for the voiceless.

Verdict: 4/5