REVIEW ROUND-UP: Pop Evil, Niis, Iron Form

Pop Evil

What Remains

Like others in the vast swathes of US radio-rock that exist and do little else, the most due approach to take with Pop Evil is just to make peace with them. They’re an inevitability that isn’t going away any time soon, not now that they’re eight albums deep. If anything, that’s prime timeline real estate to really begin phoning it in, because what’s going to happen to them? Are the Pop Evil fanbase really going to develop a modicum of critical instinct in that time? Even if 2023’s Skeletons was a marginally good(ish) release, it wasn’t by virtue of a new lease of creative life. No, it was more likely fluked into existence by a smokescreen of higher effort than its preceding bad, bland brethren. Wanna know how you can tell? Because What Remains snaps back to business as usual like being away from the dead centre of the road was giving Pop Evil withdrawal symptoms.

The real giveaway for that is how What Remains produces a frankly staggering dearth of interesting things to talk about. True to form, Pop Evil’s hard rock is its usual, lumbering, squeaky-clean self, kept from the complete bowels of mediocrity by Leigh Kakaty being the good singer that he is. Even then, though, there’s not a limit that’s touched upon, let alone tested. Thundering, mid-tempo hooks on Wishful Thinking or Zero To None could theoretically be expansive and epic, had they not been the battery-farmed stock of many a radio-rock band countless times over, including Pop Evil themselves. Elsewhere, Deathwalk sees the influence of Wage War’s Cody Quistad on this album, shaped into laborious metalcore dullardry that clatters along in a way that makes itself sound bored. Finally, there’s Knife For The Butcher which, in everything from production to pacing to the sound and delivery of Kakaty’s voice, is literally just an Imagine Dragons song.

What Remains is also just not a very impactful album, even within the confines of what it’s doing. Of course there’s the sense of been-there-done-that that’s endemic among Pop Evil (even at their best), but What Remains presents this humdrum version of it with barely anything to get behind. This isn’t a long album, which is undoubtedly a blessing, but it’s also way more insubstantial than Pop Evil want and need it to be. Thus, we get one of the more mercenary uses in a while of “heaviest album to date”, stressing a thematic weight to spotlight some by-the-books emoting that’s never particularly noteworthy. If you’re expecting musical heaviness instead…well, if modern alt-metal’s legs have succumbed to atrophy through everyone else, what logic is there behind Pop Evil coming to save the day?

Ultimately, What Remains’ purpose feels little more than to keep the lights on for its creators. It’ll probably succeed at that with flying colours, as it secures Pop Evil a little tighter in their radio-rock life jacket to even further mitigate the chance of slipping out. Maybe they thought Skeletons might have been too transgressive (which it wasn’t) and sought to rectify that, post-haste. Well, they did it, and the result is a straight-laced, unadventurous slab of radio-rock that the eighth Pop Evil album would always be. What Remains? Even after multiple goes-around, not a lot.

For fans of: Shinedown, Wage War, Papa Roach

‘What Remains’ by Pop Evil is released on 21st March on MNRK Heavy.

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Niis

Niis World

So this is what hardcore can sound like now? It can just…be like this, with no qualifier? Expect a lot more of it when Scowl release Are We All Angels in April; Niis are just jumping onboard a little early. And it’s not like their take is a beat-for-beat recreation, either. In the calculus of hardcore with a fancy for indie and garage-rock, Niis definitely take priority in showing off those additional sides of themselves. Add in the Strokes-esque swagger brought over from New York to their LA home, and Niis might as well be painting ‘buzz band’ all over themselves right now.

Thus, don’t be surprised if Niis World gets credited as the source of hardcore’s next shunt forward. The tastemaker-ready feel it radiates is just too potent. And while there are definitely points where the ancestral gatekeeper in all hardcore fans is dying to come out and say its piece, Niis do tend to feel like the genuine article, as opposed to a straight-up indie band playing dress-up. Tyrant and Spite are unmistakably punk, specifically in the bratty, forked-tongue shouts of Mimi Doe. Following them, STK is a plain old hardcore-punk song, as straightforward as it gets. Even outside of that little section, songs like BYD and New Pig flare up in raucous, ramshackle blasts with little complexity, but a whole lot of melody.

Truth be told, when Niis fully tilt into indie-rock mode, they could use a little more distinguishing colour and flavour, but it’s never unpleasant in its execution. Opener Low Life is incredibly familiar compositionally, and yet the thick, twanging bass is as much a highlight as ever when pitted against post-punk guitars and a softer vocal delivery. The Bow and Scatter also find themselves planted in the dead centre of Californian indie-punk, only with more determination that the usual slacker-rock insomnia cures. The whole album is quick and sharply produced enough to where it’s hard to dwell on the more glaring conventionalities. Even if the same thing could arguably be said about Niis World’s own spark, too, the balance is ultimately weighted in Niis’ favour.

It’s where the threads of a relationship between Niis and Scowl begin to knot together—one is the more ‘reputable’ hardcore name; the other is a somewhat-equivalent presence in garage-rock. Again, don’t be surprised when the floodgates fully open and this exact allelic code cuts a swathe through both sides. Will Niis be seen among the trailblazers who ushered in its considerable, conscious push? Had it been a decade ago, definitely; right now…yeah, there’s a fair enough chance. What they’re doing is likable and pulse-pounding enough to not count them out, and there’s enough going for them to rule out immediately dismissal as mere hangers-on. Chances are that won’t be something that can be said for a lot of the names just over the horizon.

For fans of: Scowl, Surfbort, Ceremony

‘Niis World’ by Niis is released on 28th March on Get Better Records.

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Iron Form

Cut From Cold Blood

When you’re looking up Iron Form on Google, one of the first results that comes up is a post on r/PostHardcore. In it is a YouTube link to Iron Form’s song Become The Blade, and the poster’s comment “My band released a single yesterday. Maybe you’ll dig it if your music taste also didn’t develop past 2004.” Now, it’s hard to verify whether this is, in fact, someone from the band, but nevertheless, the assessment is spot-on. Imagine bits of Poison The Well, Misery Signals, maybe a goth-less Bleeding Through and the tiniest sprig of earlier Funeral For A Friend for taste, and you’ve got the exercise in sounding like some of the best parts of 20 years ago that is Iron Form.

There’s absolutely pedigree among the rattling-off of influences, too. Iron Form as an outfit is spearheaded by Alex Heffernan and Mario Gambardella, both of whom have extensive musical experience, though most prominent is the former’s stint in Svalbard. Within that lineage, there’s an element of grandeur nabbed to fuel Cut From Cold Blood in spots, albeit without forming peaks quite so mountainous. There’s a down-to-the-ground production style that’s very in-keeping with Iron Form’s heavier touchstones, without outright shunting melody off, either. Later on especially, Become The Blade and Cold Blood have some decent sweep, akin to an early While She Sleeps if their gaze drifted away from Gothenburg towards the States.

To that end, there’s a clearer view of the hardcore that drives Iron Form, post- or otherwise. There’s some surprisingly pronounced and pulsing bass work that comes through on New History, itself being way more flavourful than your standard metal or -core fare. Meanwhile, the vocal bark on Spirit Rain and Vengeance Prayer is at its most shredded and threadbare, in a good way. It’s a helpful shorthand for Iron Form’s tenacity and determination, not just powering through the hostility illustrated by some fittingly bleak vocal samples, but also mere existence as a brand new band. You can tell from the simple facts of their sound that Iron Form are a miniscule enterprise on a shoestring budget, but does that faze them even slightly? Well, they’ve made the epitome of a furious DIY tooth-grinder within those circumstances, so you decide that for yourself.

There’s still a long way for Iron Form to go before they’re a finished article, sure, but Cut From Cold Blood almost paints that as intentional. It’s small, scrappy and heartily effected by the output of its musical heroes—they’re the telltale signs of a side-project that knows it’s a side-project. The fact that Iron Form just get their heads down and own it is rather endearing, honestly. And between a really strong sound, good creative instincts and inspiration, and some absolutely sick artwork, Cut From Cold Blood still satisfies on all fronts. Blatant bites of nostalgia seldom have this much going for them.

For fans of: Poison The Well, Misery Signals, older While She Sleeps

‘Cut From Cold Blood’ by Iron Form is released on 21st March on Church Road Records.

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Words by Luke Nuttall