Release Date: 26th June 2020
Record Label: Sharptone Records
For Fans Of: Limp Bizkit, Hatebreed and The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza
By this point, if you know who Emmure are then you’ve probably already made your mind up about whether you like them or not. The Connecticut deathcore/nu-metal(?) mainstays have ruffled many-a-feather over the course of their career, a direct result of longtime frontman Frankie Palmeri’s seemingly endless shenanigans (renouncing almost everything he’s ever written to name a recent example). Starting as what could be easily labelled an Acacia Strain-clone before delving deep into their rap and nu-metal roots on 2012’s Slave To The Game. They have since perfected this winning formula with the addition of guitar wizard Josh Travis (Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza and Glass Cloud), culminating in Look At Yourself in 2017, easily their best, and most interesting record to date. So where can Emmure go from here? If Hindsight is anything to go by, it’s only further up the food chain.
One thing that defines modern metalcore is bounce, and these guys do it better than just about anyone else. This influx of piggybacking is something Palmeri feels particularly pissed about on the raging ‘Trash Folder’: “Write your songs all day, riffs and lyrics change, but you end up sounding JUST LIKE ME.” The nu-vibes keep on coming with scratchy turntables on the opener and even scatting on the brilliant ‘Thunder Mouth’, taking the weirdo sounds of Life Is Peachy-era Korn and somehow making it sound fresh for 2020. Hindsight also sees the band incorporating more electronic elements than ever before, but instead of trying to shoehorn them in like a D-tier Linkin Park, Emmure’s clear love and understanding of underground hip-hop shines through. This is also reflected in the comparatively short track-lengths, perfectly suiting the short-sharp-shock nature of their sound, reminiscent of likes of BONES and $uicideboy$. Sometimes, brevity leaves a bigger impression.
Although it’s good to pick apart these excellent deep cuts, we’d be kidding ourselves if we didn’t come to Emmure for the bangers, a department in which Hindsight does not disappoint. ‘I’ve Scene God’ features heavy use of down-pitched spoken word sections, namechecking everyone from Knocked Loose to Nails in a braggadocious manifesto of the band’s success. Guaranteed to cause pit mayhem, Pigs Ear’ is a straight slammer while ‘Uncontrollable Descent’ springs hyperactively from one elastic groove to another like a gymnast with neck tats. The album highlight, however, comes in the form of the astoundingly bleak ‘Gypsy Disco’ which, lyrically, sees Palmeri tearing himself apart: “I lament every choice, every breath, every step that I took in to a legacy of fucking regret.” Before you’ve even had a chance to digest these words Travis’ 9-string locks in and starts just POUNDING with the best breakdown of the band’s career – no biggie for the guy who wrote ‘Rudy X 3’.
At the end of the day, whether you like this album or not depends on your opinion of Emmure in general. If you’ve already decided they’re trash, this is never going to woo you, but if you’re along for the ride, then get ready for some mayhem. At the end of the day, what more do you want from them? Hindsight sees a well-established band sprinkling some cool new tricks and ideas into their established sound to create the best collection of songs they’ve ever put out. Emmure is gonna Emmure…but that’s exactly how we like it.
9/10
Recommended Track: ‘Gypsy Disco’