Stretch Arm Strong
The Revealing
In the extensive rankings of punk and hardcore mainstays dubbed ‘legends’ thanks to longevity, Stretch Arm Strong are…definitely one of them. Maybe it’s a critique on how willy-nilly that status can be bestowed, but among the same catchment, you’d be hard pressed to call them bad, either. Let’s not hold it against them that their top song on streaming is the bad cover of P!nk’s Get This Party Started from the first Punk Goes Pop; they have been alright in the past. 2005’s Free At Last was actually really good, despite being closer to era-appropriate Warped Tour than anything ‘properly’ hardcore. Since then, they’ve drifted in and out of inactivity, with The Revealing being your typical ‘no, really, we’re actually back’ release, emblematic of many a hardcore oldhead. Not entirely the 10-foot-tall profile of ‘legends’, then, but hearts and minds aren’t easily swayed from their faves in this scene. For that exact crowd, The Revealing probably justifies their hyping all on its own.
Meanwhile, for anyone who isn’t a superfan, this isn’t unenjoyable. In keeping with genre tradition, Stretch Arm Strong haven’t mellowed or petered out with age, as a concentrated 16 minutes stands testament to. They’ve also pivoted back to two-fisted hardcore-punk, likely to facilitate the feel of a proper rebirth back to their youngest and hungriest. And with the vitriol in the tone of Chris McLane’s bark and the overall pace that’s completely absent of rust, you’re almost inclined to call it a total success. When Sick Of It All’s Lou Koller is the guest on Take A Stand, it’s like Stretch Arm Strong are trying to kajigger the parallels themselves, as they’re placed next to the one of the shining lights of grey-haired hardcore with the express intention of keeping up.
The issue—or the less-favourable observation, if you want to get pedantic—is just that The Revealing isn’t all that special. There’s nothing too wrong with it, and Illuminating and Still Believe, Part III work well as the customary melodic beacons among it all, but it also falls in the same way that Stretch Arm Strong as a whole aren’t top-brass contributors among the scene. There’s just so many doing this, often with the same story of long-awaited return. And thus, where does that leave them outside of being an edge piece with little unique definition for themselves, if any at all? You get a fine, digestible EP, with any promise of significant expansion or a bold, new creative wave being totally nonexistent. Maybe that’s fine for hardcore that’s explicitly preaching to the converted, as this is. Or maybe, in a literal sea of the same stuff, it stops Stretch Arm Strong from delivering anything close to a killer blow.
In essence, The Revealing is what it is, and demands little in the way of greater elaboration. The meat and potatoes of Stretch Arm Strong are served up, unencumbered by the trimmings of anything that’d even merit a glance at ‘style over substance’. And so you will have heard it all before, guaranteed. Outside of this band’s completionists (if they exist), this is less something you revisit for a fill of genius, and more a prod to get Stretch Arm Strong back in your head. It’ll take more than this for them to stay there, should they wish to carry on, but it’s fit for purpose, if nothing else. Unremarkably okay, in other words. • LN
For fans of: Sick Of It All, With Honor, Madball
‘The Revealing’ by Stretch Arm Strong is out now on Iodine Recordings.
Unleash The Archers
Phantoma
Whether it’s the onslaught of guitar riffs, frontwoman Slayes’ epic vocal performance or the band’s love of sci-fi that bleeds into the music, Canadian power-metal outfit Unleash The Archers continue to pack a punch with their high-energy albums. Phantoma brings a few developments, not only with the growth in their songwriting, along with a few stylistic curveballs thrown in, and their experimentation with AI.
It is this latter aspect that has caught the attention of many in the metal scene leading to a variety of responses and opinions, including a number of negative responses arising from it. Unleash The Archers are by no means the only or the first band to incorporate AI into their art; whether rightly or wrongly, it is now a widely available tool and, in that respect, the focused negativity doesn’t necessarily feel justified. Is the nature of AI problematic in terms of compiling existing artistic works into one without permission? Absolutely. It is, however, important to highlight here that the band took the ethical step to licence artwork specifically for their use. The inclusion of AI on this album is perhaps more understandable when considered in context with the album’s concept. It’s quite apt that it should emphasise the dystopian world the band have imagined, which is perhaps more familiar to our own than we would care to admit.
Shifting focus onto Unleash The Archers’ storytelling and creativity across Phantoma, thrilling riffs are merged with trad, prog and electronic aspects to push their power-metal prowess even further. Opening with Human Era, a sense of vastness and bleakness is constructed through atmospheric sound effects which carry through into the texture of the music. Significantly more prog-leaning, this track, while a deviation from the sound many know best from Unleash The Archers, is highly impactful. Ph4/NT0mA showcases more predominantly the power metal sound with added hints of prog and electronic elements entwined throughout the mix. The anthemic chorus delivers the epic, uplifting qualities with the catchiness of a memorable progression.
Green & Glass evokes a sense of melancholy. Intricate and technical guitar leads boost the momentum of the music and bridge together the alternating lighter and darker sections. It’s a song of two tales—the beauty of the glimmering surface, and the broken remnants that lie beneath. The final track on the album, Blood Empress, delves into darker depths with heavy guitars, powerful instrumental layers and an overall moody vibe. Thematically, it’s a bittersweet end exploring loss; the repeated lyrics “I’m not a human” are incredibly striking and emotive. Unleash The Archers’ venture into previously unchartered realms has led to a dynamic and intriguing track list. The band haven’t abandoned their signature sound, but rather enhanced it to heighten Phantoma’s narrative. • HR
For fans of: Beast In Black, Frozen Crown, Seven Kingdoms
‘Phantoma’ by Unleash The Archers is out now on Napalm Records.
DARKO
Greyscale
For this current age of DARKO, there seems to have been so serious attention put towards retooling. As much as a new vocalist can lay a firm boundary between what is and what was, a bit of creative consideration doesn’t go amiss either. So now, with Tom West as frontman and a good few years removed from a debut whose ideas buckled its execution in Bonsai Mammoth, DARKO are born anew. That is to say, their cross between skate-punk and Protest The Hero-style progressivisms have been wound in a bit tighter now. Between 2022’s EP Sparkle and this subsequent helping, it’s certainly looking good.
Granted, that shock of a hard sell hasn’t gone away, likely because it’s baked into their DNA at this point. As no strangers to harder exteriors jutting out at prickled angles—often to the expense of punk’s tunefulness—DARKO are by no means winding down. Even if Greyscale is a mite more approachable (entirely in relative terms), the various whip-cracks of mathcore are never too far out of frame. Andy Borg’s drumming is, once again, the primary attention grabber, and while he’d make a killing as a hydraulic press, the continual, front-facing assault with little downtime can be a bit overwhelming.
Never to the point where DARKO seem to have slid back to old, less-good habits, mind. The buffer of having this just being five tracks helps, but genuinely, you do feel the effects of fine-tuning on Greyscale. Built On Broken Backs and Lowest Hanging Fruit have the impact to stick around more hardily, and What I Cannot Be is a dense little cruncher that’s an argument in itself for a full-on hardcore pivot. What’s more, there’s a better idea across the board of how DARKO’s two musical personalities work in service of each other, rather than in opposition. There are blisters of discord among a carefully sketched dystopia via punk, ideal to play off a jolting West’s bites at toxic masculinity and climate change and a political condition that’s generally awful for everyone. (Bonus points for getting in a wonderful phrase like “projectile chundering”, too; can’t fault it.)
It might be the most that DARKO’s particular concoction has ever worked, honestly. Even when it seems it doesn’t, you can’t discount a matter of taste, and how that already informs the bulk of what this sound is. And given that DARKO seem fully aware of how much of a niche commodity they are, and strive to lean into it, you can at least say they aren’t holding back. Greyscale is as much of a singular, uniquely realised vision as anything this band have ever done, only now more treated to get the best from it, as much as possible. Looks like the resurgence of DARKO isn’t going too badly, then. • LN
For fans of: Propagandhi, Belvedere, Protest The Hero
‘Greyscale’ by DARKO is released on 17th May on Lockjaw Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall (LN) and Holly Royle (HR)
