Boundaries – Yearning: The Unbeautiful After
Release Date: 17th July 2026
Label: Sumerian Records
Across four albums, Boundaries have proven themselves as a consistent metalcore outfit that deliver both in power and heaviness. Now with Yearning: the Unbeautiful After, the band’s first album in two years, Boundaries look to take a more personal and darker approach than before as they tackle themes of death, violence and mourning head on.
The opening track ‘Malconscience’ takes that approach and runs with it… and just keeps running well into the distance. It’s a brutal way to kick things off with a thumping riff that feels like the musical equivalent of a jackhammer to the skull. Whether that’s a good or bad thing will really come down to personal preference.
One thing that should be noted, if the themes weren’t already an indicator of this, is that this album is an assault on the senses for better or worse and requires you to be in the right headspace to fully connect with and appreciate what it is trying to say. For instance, ‘Skies Cast Amber Black’ and ‘Bitter Ash, Bitter Love’ revel in their loudness and deliberately confrontational lyrics, so much so that it could be off putting to some.
However, as the album progresses it starts to introduce varying ideas and musical stylings into its already aggressive sound which, for the most part, work quite well. ‘Unequal Whole’ weaves in a punky attitude to its guitar playing during the choruses whereas ‘Nothing, Gathered’ sees possibly the best blending of melodic and repetitive elements up to that point in the tracklist.
The album’s crowning achievement is the penultimate track ‘Only Endless’. This is a sprawling behemoth of a track that blends the anthemic with the pain and aggression that’s been present on the rest of the album. Although raw emotion is something this entire album has drenched itself in from the start, it’s only at the back end of the tracklist where these incredibly heartbreaking themes are at their most potent and accessible. It’s also a shame that nothing else presented here comes as close to the euphoria and passion that ‘Only Endless’ reaches.
Yearning: the Unbeautiful After is an unforgiving album that grabs listeners by the throat and forces them to bathe in these uncomfortable feelings whether they like it or not. For the vast majority of its runtime, it can be a bit too much to take in at once but when it calms down and balances the intensity with a touch of serenity in its back half, it evolves into something oddly beautiful at times.
Words by Aaron Gillingham