Album review: Show Me The Body – Trouble The Water

Hardcore has become a broad term. Where once it was a much faster, aggressive, often more violent form of punk, today the genre tag can be applied to everyone from Code Orange to Scowl to Malevolence, who don’t really sound that much alike, as bands draw on the forefathers of the genre but imbibe influences outside its once rigid confines.

Brooklyn’s Show Me The Body are part of this new wave. Sure, there are swaggering NYHC sensibilities underpinning their caustic sound, but the trio’s interests reach much further than the dank dive bars of the East Coast. For one thing, they have a banjo and a synth, used to chilling effect on new album Trouble The Water, and are clearly indebted to the ’90s alt.rock scene, sludge, noise and even hip-hop. All wrapped up with a jet-black bow on top, it’s delivered with a knowing, no-fucks-given sneer, with vocalist Julian Pratt veering between slurring pub rocker and Jacob Bannon.

Rather than being just another band to mic grab and throw down to, Trouble The Water is a considered effort, more brooding than brawling; from its haunting banjo intro to the eerie rabbit hole of Out Of Place to the more spoken-word inflected WW4. Rather than sprint, SMTB choose to stomp, adding murkier grooves amongst the layers of discord on tracks like War Not Beef.

Sounding very much like the sort of guys you wouldn't want to meet down a dark alley, all-out aggression isn’t the order of the day here. A sinister aura permeates through as Julian laments ‘I like the city when it’s empty’ on Food From Plate or ‘I want to feel what I’ve never felt before’ on Demeanor. Although it might not set your mosh muscles alight like the coffins on its cover, SMTB have improved their genre-exploring recipe with deeper flavours, keeping you coming back for more.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Gulch, Drug Church, Soul Glo

Read this: Terror’s Scott Vogel: “I was pissed off and a little bit lost, and when I found hardcore it gave me a place to belong”