Counterparts

Counterparts are a fitting band to do this post for this week as they have just put out a new album entitled You're Not You Anymore and I highly encourage you to check it out! I'll post a video of one of the singles they released for it! Anyways, Counterparts has a bit of a following thanks to their angsty lyrics perfect for any angsty teen such as myself! They've been around for a while now with their first album coming out in 2010 and have released 4 other albums now since then. After several lineup changes over the years, Counterparts currently consists of Brendan Murphy, vocals, Adrian Lee, rhythm guitar, Blake Hardman, lead guitar and backing vocals, Kyle Brownlee, drums, and Tyler Williams, bass and backing vocals. Brendan is the only original member left of the band.

Counterparts are a band that need to be under your radar if they aren't already. As stated earlier, Counterparts are known for their angsty lyrics. These lyrics deal with a lot of issues in the lives of everyone, especially those that are of personal manner to vocalist Brendan. Abandonment, acceptance, grief, these are just some of the struggles that Counterparts tackles in their lyrics. My favorite line of lyrics from them comes from the song Jumping Ship. "You were the catalyst for your downfall. But where the rest have failed we are bound to succeed. And mark my words as long as we are breathing we will overcome.The integrity that we emanate day-to-day is unparalleled and our efforts will not go unnoticed." This is a song that's about acceptance of who you are and about being who you are and to not let other people influence your personality. This song is their way of saying hey you listening, you're cool the way you are and don't let other people say otherwise. This whole song just gives me chills whenever I listen to it, the inspirational lyrics are enough to help anyone feel better about themselves.

Whether you have a lot of that college angst you need to let out, or you're looking for something inspirational to help you feel better about something going on in your life, then Counterparts has got the perfect music for you!

Music video for Jumping Ship from their 2011 album The Current Will Carry Us

ERRA

Another big upcoming band I want to talk abut that already has a bit of a following thanks to their experience is progressive metalcore act from Birmingham, Alabama known as ERRA. After a few lineup changes over the years, ERRA currently consists of Alex Ballew - drums (far left), J.T. Cavey - vocals (left center), Sean Price - rhythm guitar, and bass (back right), and Jesse Cash - lead guitar, bass, and clean vocals (right center). The name of the band refers to the Akkadian god of war and plague, and a lot of the lyrical themes in their earlier stuff really had to deal with mythology. Their latest album steered away from this theme but instead tackled other issues such as life on the road as a touring band, the process of drifting out of reality as an escape from the world in the form of things like music, etc. ERRA has released 3 EPs and 3 full lengths since 2010. Their first 2 EPs released in 2010 and were both self released, their next 2 albums, Impulse, and Augment, came out in 2011 and 2013 respectively, their next EP, Moments of Clarity came out in 2014, and then their latest album, Drift, came out in 2016. So as you can see they've been a very busy band in their 7 years of activity. Despite being around for this long though, they only have about 150,000 likes on Facebook and their most popular music video has a little under 900,000 views. So they're in about the same boat as Silent Planet where a lot of people know of their existence, but they still haven't had very many headlining tours unfortunately.

Nevertheless, don't let this make you sleep on them because they are excellent song writers with some of the heaviest yet beautiful music I've ever heard. Not to mention Jesse Cash has some of the most beautiful clean vocals I've ever heard. J.T. has great vocals too and it's worth mentioning he's only been with these guys since Drift and before he was with one other band for a short time so this guy has got a bright future with this band. The vocals with these two is an excellent combination and I can't wait to hear more from these guys in the future! Their style of music is one of the best examples of progressive metal, their use of an atmospheric and ambient sound is a key progressive metal element and it really makes for some of the best night time or rainy day music. And this sound has progressed ever since Jesse started using a 7 string guitar as opposed to a 6 string for Drift and Sean has been rocking a 7 string as well ever since Moments of Clarity.

While their older stuff before the addition of J.T. is a bit heavier, Drift is still one heavy album it just seems to focus more on their melodic sound, and Jesse's voice has really matured through the years if you listen to each album, which I highly encourage you do because there is no such thing as a bad ERRA album. These guys are definitely heading in the right direction, they always have been but expect great things from these guys in the future! They've got the perfect music to both bang your head to or just close your eyes and escape in the cool melodic music, whichever you're feeling! On a parting note, ERRA is another band that I've had the pleasure of seeing play in Lawrence and although they were one of the openers and only played 5 songs, it was still an amazing experience and I highly encourage you to check them out live if given the chance! And yes Jesse's voice really does sound just as amazing live as recorded if that helps the encouragement!

Hybrid Earth from their album Augment is their most viewed music video on YouTube and is an excellent example of what this band is about and shows off former vocalist, Garrison Lee. If you aren't a big fan of this music, skip to 2:47 for the best guitar solo you will ever hear in your life, trust me!

And here's Luminesce, which was the first single from their latest album Drift and gives you an example of what they sound like with current vocalist J.T.

Silent Planet

If you were to ask me who the next big breakthrough band is in metalcore, the answer is so simple. It's the Christian headbangers from California known as Silent Planet. The band consists of Garrett Russell - vocals, Thomas Freckleton - bass, keyboards, and clean vocals, Mitchell Stark - guitar, and Alex Camarena - drums. These guys have released 2 EPs, and 2 full lengths since 2012 with their first full length releasing in 2014 and their latest full length released summer of 2016. For being such a young band, these guys have already racked up quite the fan base with close to 200,000 likes on Facebook and their most popular music video has close to 800,000 views. But of course those numbers aren't as big as a lot of metalcore bands, but STILL! It's awesome seeing how many people already support these guys and they are only just getting started! I saw them in Lawrence back in November and it was just so surreal finally getting to see them and next time they make it to Lawrence I hope to see some familiar faces there, trust me guys they put on an amazing show no matter if they're headlining or opening!

Back on track though, as stated before they're a Christian band but trust me you don't have to be Christian to get into them or any other Christian band for that matter! I'm most definitely far from being religious but I love their music so much and they do an excellent job of appealing to everyone no matter their beliefs. For example, each song on their latest album Everything Was Sound has to deal with a different mental illness and they tell of a story in a way. The song Panic Room is about PTSD and tells the story of Garrett's friend who was deployed in Afghanistan and shot a man in the leg to stop him not kill him but the man ended up bleeding out and this friend of Garrett's lives with that horror like so many other people who have seen combat in any way. The song Psychescape is about schizophrenia, Nervosa deals with anorexia, etc. There's a great series of videos where Garrett talks in depth about each song and their meanings so I'll post the link to that series since I imagine you'd actually want to hear it from a member of the band explain it as opposed to me. This isn't their only album where they've done this though, their second EP lastsleep (1944-1946) tells the stories of three different World War 2 survivors and then their first full length The Night God Slept tells various stories through the eyes of female protagonists. For example, XX (City Grave) focuses on sex trafficking that's going on in America, Native Blood is about the history of the Native Americans, etc. Again, I won't get into heavy detail about each song but this gives you an idea how metal lyrics have a deep and personal meaning behind them that speak to everyone, especially Silent Planet's.

To wrap things up about Silent Planet, they're a young and talented band that's definitely going to be skyrocketing further into success in the music business. If you haven't already listened to them and you're a metalcore fan, I highly encourage you to give them a listen especially if you like Underoath, The Devil Wears Prada, Architects, and Oh, Sleeper just a name a few bands that they share a similar sound with. And if you've never listened to metalcore before, Silent Planet is definitely a great start if you're looking for some heavy music with positive and heartfelt lyrics! Stay tuned for some more metalcore bands to be on the lookout for!



From their first full length The Night God Slept, Native Blood is Silent Planet's most viewed music video on YouTube.




And here's Garrett's analysis of the lyrics to Panic Room.

Introduction

I just want to start off with saying that I know this isn't a very popular genre of music to most people, but the goal I have in mind here is to help open up some new opportunities for you, the reader, to the world of this wonderful sub genre of metal! Especially since this is such a different type of metal, when the average person thinks of metal, they think it's "angry" music with unintelligent lyrics or something related, but most bands actually put such deep meanings in their lyrics. I'll be covering various bands and talking about them, reviewing new albums, giving insight on the lyrical themes some bands use, etc. And if you are already an avid listener of metalcore then don't worry, hopefully I will help introduce you to new bands you haven't heard of before! While I could talk for days of some of the popular or more well known metalcore bands out there such as Blessthefall, Underoath, The Devil Wears Prada, Born of Osiris, etc. I'm going to be primarily focused on the lesser known bands. The reason I'm picking this topic for this blog is because I have a deep connection with music and especially the metalcore genre, I remember listening to so many great early-mid 2000's metalcore bands growing up with my sister and ever since it has played a key role in my life and I certainly wouldn't still be here today if it wasn't for some of these great bands. Over the years I've been able to come across a bunch of well known and not very well known bands and I can't wait to share all these bands with you! And if you're not sure what metalcore is if it's a genre you don't listen to, metalcore is the combination of heavy metal and hardcore punk. What makes it a unique sub genre of metal is the use of both heavy and deep screamed vocals, "screams", and non screamed vocals or just regularly sung vocals that are called "cleans." So just a little terminology there for you since those are both words that I plan to use frequently with each blog post.