A bit of history is required for this one, because there may be parties who’d be interested but not informed enough (or even old enough) to know what this is. So, D.R.U.G.S. were a supergroup that went almost unparalleled in their field. They were like the Traveling Wilburys of late-2000s post-hardcore second-stringers, led by Craig Owens of Chiodos and rounded out with alumni of From First To Last, Story Of The Year, Sleeping With Sirens and others. They also had a pretty incredible self-titled debut in 2011, distilling their era’s histrionics and emo melodrama into a tour de force of both nostalgic synapse hits, and something that felt creative and exciting in its own right.
The past tense in that little breakdown is extremely important to note, as the current incarnation of D.R.U.G.S. is most definitely not the same thing as it was once. It’s now been repurposed as yet another Craig Owens solo project, fortunately not left abandoned like his multitude of others, but also without much done to keep the brand alive. There was a new album in 2022 that not a single soul heard, likely a result of the 11-year interim where barely a peer was heard from the D.R.U.G.S. camp. If you asked even the most ardent enjoyers of that debut, they’d likely still assume this project dead in the water.
It’s such a shame as Until God Shows is absolutely sick, too much so to get swept aside by a total lack of hype. Honestly, it’s unbelievable how this has turned out. Owens has brushed off an extended dormancy and a revival that was barely received at all as if both were nothing, in what feels like a complete, ground-up rebuilding of what D.R.U.G.S. was. Whichever way you look at it, it’s a blindsiding achievement that only becomes more so each time you think about it. Like, by all rights, this should’ve been less than nothing; a total non-starter. In truth, it’s one of the best -core releases of the year, hands down.
The thing is, with that, it likely wouldn’t have been has D.R.U.G.S. simply stuck to what worked all that time ago. Instead, it’s a result of Owens doing the unthinkable and asking “what if 2010s metalcore could actually be good?” The concept at the centre has remained consistent within that—casting back to what ruled the scene a few years prior, and smelting purely the best bits via the benefit of hindsight and what could’ve been. Naturally, the results on Until God Shows aren’t as flashy, but neither was the source material. It’s all about pounding, crushing density this time, revamped to be almost industrial in tone and exponentially heavier than many of its original proprietors would even dare get. It Follows kicks off and is immediately a nuke-drop, with the grind and gristle left in and the calamitous lows scorched in even further, on what might otherwise be a fairly conventional alt-metal track.
The creative axis of D.R.U.G.S. has often accounted for how liberally they might use the material and styles they’re rooted in. Spurts of inspiration do occur, but in the grand scheme of genre, wheels are not being reinvented. That’s an ethos that pays off as handsomely as humanly possible on Until God Shows, in what may be the ultimate proving ground for it. Take a song like Two Hand Touch and how generous it’s willing to be to the chest-beating standards of nu-metalcore, and what it metamorphose into an undeniable banger in a set of hands that clearly know what they’re doing. Owens never really gets sufficient credit for how deep his abilities run, and while this is far from writing-music-with-Dr.-Dre levels of artistry, redressing some of metal’s most maligned run-offs into something this legit is nothing to sniff at. Even amid the standard of steamrolling weight, there’s still a song like STEEL that screams and spews out industrial chaos that far exceeds what this approach deems ‘usual’. For what this album is, the heaviness can be shocking at times.
There’s also Owens himself to add into that incredulity, with a performance that not only outpaces vast swathes of clingers-on from his original scene’s days, but also the ones being emulated. This might just be his best vocal performance ever, as worries of a whinier emo register that just peer into view are quelled with little effort. He actually assimilates with the lead-heavy clashes around him remarkably well, to say nothing of the sheerness of screams that blow holes through MALICE or Hunger Pangs or Debt Collector (Best Of Me). They’re used sparingly in the way that a shrapnel-burst might seem ‘sparing’ among full-blown warfare—an attack that cuts and pierces, even when there’s little respite to found elsewhere. The fact they’re set off that way is an added benefit to the album as a whole, in what’s generally big and melodic and heavy, with the extra force of bite to break the skin properly.
The praise that can be doled upon Until God Shows really does to belong in a capacity like this. Despite all signs pointing to a pretty basic concept, it’s the magnitude in which it’s pulled off that should be where all attention is drawn to. Had this been released in 2015-ish, you could make a claim for the entirety of the scene being reshaped in its image; that’s the kind of weight D.R.U.G.S. are holding on this. And that sort of thing doesn’t just ebb out with a waning trend. This is just as good on its own, maybe even better as a result of having more breathing room and space to freely occupy. And the fact that this is—for all intents and purposes—a comeback from a band who’ve been out of the loop for over a decade makes this an even more monumental feat. Even if D.R.U.G.S. didn’t deserve to be forgotten in the first place, there’s no better time than right now to become reacquainted.
For fans of: Bring Me The Horizon, Motionless In White, Fever 333
‘Until God Shows’ by D.R.U.G.S. is released on 27th September on Velocity Records.
Words by Luke Nuttall
