Comfort in one’s preferences within musical genres is an interesting subject. For example, when I listen to metal, I generally prefer less rough vocal delivery. As much as I like a band like Carnifex (and as fun as the mosh pits are), I’d much rather listen to Judas Priest or King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard. It’s not that rougher vocals are bad to me. I just prefer the cleaner side of the metal vocal spectrum. Just like how I prefer my jazz avant garde, spiritual, or some sort of fusion, I prefer my metal relatively clean and melodic. With all that in mind, sometimes an album is so good it says ‘fuck your preferences’ and beats you over the head mercilessly.
That is certainly the case with the latest Knocked Loose album, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To. I didn’t expect to enjoy this project as much as I did. I hadn’t heard a single Knocked Loose project before this, and I only heard one pre-release single. I had been recommended to listen to the band prior to listening by friends and saw the glowing early reviews for the album in question. I was curious, and the album is relatively short. I did not expect the insane sonic density, intense rage, and genuinely thought provoking lyrical themes that were delivered. Even if it isn’t perfect, in just twenty seven minutes Knocked Loose have managed to leave me, quite literally, breathless with what they’ve accomplished here.
After a faint bell ring (as if to say ‘let the games begin’), the opener, Thirst, shows exactly what the band is capable of. After a loud scream, vocalist Bryan lashes out “Followed by the thirst!”. In less than a minute and a half, the tone is set perfectly. Cryptic writing that builds up across the song and is enhanced by dynamic vocals, drums that sound like heavy shotguns, guitars that are visceral but just melodic enough to work, and an overall sense of being pummeled across the track make Thirst a thrill to listen to. There’s even a couple of breakdowns towards the end of the song. It checks so many boxes I didn’t fully know I had.
The song Suffocate checks a box I knew I had by featuring Poppy, one of my favorite newer artists (at the time of writing). Poppy kills it on the song. She’s dabbled in rock and metal before but never anything quite this intense before. I am actually fairly surprised she was able to adapt to the band’s brand of metal so well, but she did. She sounds quite a bit like the main vocalist for the band, but you can definitely tell it’s her.
I believe now would be a good time to mention that the mixing on this album is exquisite. Mostly everything is loud, yes, but it’s varying degrees of loud. Suffocate illustrates this very well. Poppy screams over the loud, chugging riffs before transitioning into a whispery bridge that is accompanied by faint background screams. The fact that the band were able to mix it in such a dynamic manner while keeping the ‘beating you down, deep frying your endorphins’ feeling makes for an impressive dichotomy that almost doesn’t feel real. In the verse itself, Poppy discusses the idea of living with your mistakes and how tortuous that can be. It’s cathartic to scream along to, given the theme of the track.
Another impressive (although occasionally detrimental) element of ‘You Won’t Go’ is the transitions on the album, as they’re absolutely seamless. Most of the transitions on the album are so smooth that I kept describing the wrong tracks in the review before going back and editing. I would believe a song was still going when it transitioned into the next one. This is mostly a good thing, but sometimes it made the songs blend together a little. Depending on who a person is and what they look for in this type of project, it might not bother them at all. For me personally, it was impressive but occasionally made the project forgettable for me. The end of Moss Covers All being the rhythm section of Take Me Home is a good example of this. I honestly would have preferred if they had combined them into one track. I will say it gets better towards the end, like how the beginning of The Calm That Keeps You Awake is completely different from the end of Slaughterhouse 2.
Speaking Of The Calm That Keeps You Awake, it is yet another example of the band keeping things interesting. Once it gets going it has a swift, almost thrash-like riff. Prior to that, it has these chugging, booming guitars. It almost feels like the incline of a rollercoaster, where the thrash-like barrage of a riff is the descent. The shotgun drums make a return here as well. Sonically, this track feels like being barraged by missiles, although the lyrics can also make it feel like hellish anxiety induced insomnia incarnate. “You sacrifice your peace now” and “nothing still can stay” exemplify this feeling perfectly. It is somewhat abstract but I enjoy it. The guitars in the chorus sound like actual bouts of thunder and I love it. There are even some strong growls and a breakdown towards the end. The anxiety aspect of the track ramps up to reveal a surprisingly calm ending.
I do love this dichotomy of peace and chaos; the calm and the storm; the incline and the decline. This pattern of instrumental barrages with eerily peaceful moments to make those barrages more meaningful reaches its apex in the closer, Sit and Mourn. The track starts with a cold, lonely electric guitar melody, where I can almost hear the tumbleweed. The track even has bird sounds. These chirps are almost immediately interrupted by one of the angriest riffs on the album. Each strum sounds like a bomb dropping into my ears. A more melodic riff follows this, leading into a calmer verse (if you can call the vocals calm). The track also incorporates some quick drumming paired with extremely intense guitars. This ramps up into an almost ambient bridge section. It is haunting and given that it’s barely over halfway through the track, it becomes apparent that it’s one of the earlier mentioned inclines. What I didn’t expect is for the barrage to be so melodic and peaceful. This is accomplished by, again, incredibly good mixing. While the outro melody is calm and pretty far up in the mix, it is accompanied by heavy chugging and those powerful drums that have been employed throughout the album. The whole section feels like descending to the depths of Hell , giving the world the finger one more time while you go.
Given that they featured Poppy and Chris Motionless on the album, the fact that they’ve toured with bands like Bring Me The Horizon and Beartooth, and that they’re a metalcore band, it is safe to say Knock Loose are deep in the alternative scene; a scene that is all too often discounted by music critics and fans alike. I am happy to say people are taking this album seriously, and hopefully it will lead to a wave of other alternative artists getting more positive attention. Knocked Loose have truly created something special here. The insanely cathartic experience of sensory overload felt in just twenty-seven minutes of music is mind blowing, even if it’s not the kind of metal I typically enjoy. I do think some of the transitions are a bit hit or miss, and the instrumentals get slightly repetitive, but that doesn’t stop You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To from being a near masterpiece and a triumph for not only the metalcore genre, but the entire alternative scene that will be moshed to violently for years to come.
9/10
