REVIEW ROUND-UP: Archers, Death Pill, en MASSE

Archers

Temporary High

Archers’ first noteworthy release was their EP / mini-album Cuts & Bruises in 2015. Around the same time, they also released a cover of The Hills by The Weeknd, such was an availability to the era of metalcore at the time. Now, knowing what we know from prior examples, there are precisely two outcomes that Archers can now embody—either they’re desperately clinging to the newest trend in the vein hope of striking lucky one of these days, or they’ve barely made a move since inception. So, please, take a wild guess at where this band who are openly inspired by the Punk Goes Pop formula are these days.

Yep, it’s another one of these, metalcore’s equivalent to a microwave burger in its absence of nutritional value and human touch. At least there’s an added sachet of sauce to go with it, namely the strings that (processed or not) lend some drama to Better Off and power-ballad excess to Safe Now. It’s the mildest additional taste, but a band like Archers necessitate taking all you can get. It’s not like there’s much else of it, when canned trap beats are just as common an element, and the brand of metalcore they’ve glommed onto is the usual flat, dreary, inorganic mulch that a post-I Prevail world has normalised. Speaking of which, a key presence is this EP’s writing and production was Jon Eberhard, known for his work with that band and Skillet, so if you’ve just felt every bit drop of hope leached from your body all at once, that’s why.

It’s, overall, one of those ‘offensively inoffensive’ types of releases, so zeroed-in and fine-tuned to algorithmic specificities that it’s almost worse than a true flop. At least in that case, there’d be a modicum of effort that’s more than implied. Archers, meanwhile, are reliant exclusively on Nathanael Pulley to prostrate himself within overwrought soundbites like “Am I lovesick or sick of the love?”. Perhaps there’s some unintended humour to that when Crooked Smile finds Pulley bellow “So long! Fuck off!” with comical levels of sincerity, but it’s entirely unintended. No, this is supposed to be serious and striking, and not a word-salad of themes that metalcore has eviscerated from overuse during Archers’ own lifetime.

So, yeah, not a lot to this one. It’s basically an exercise in following the radio-metalcore / active-rock rulebook to the letter, and therefore not leaving even the most minute crack for Archers to develop something of their own. What that would be is hard to say; they seem pretty locked-in on this stuff, where the idea of unique personality doesn’t gel. Though, let’s be honest—this band, who’ve had minimal significant output since 2015 with little growth amongst it, is not suddenly going to emerge victorious on a five-track EP and trounce the competition singlehandedly. You can only be disappointed if there were even a chance of this being literally anything.

For fans of: I Prevail, Wind Walkers, If Not For Me

‘Temporary High’ by Archers is out now on SBG Records.

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Death Pill

Sologamy

It feels like there’s a tacit determination from Death Pill on their new album to break away from being just ‘that Ukrainian punk band’. That was the narrative that dominated their debut, an album that had mostly been completed before Russia’s invasion of their homeland, but as a result, became heavy and swollen with the weight of it. Thus, Death Pill became more of an international, mainstream presence than they’d likely ever anticipated, just not for the ‘right’ reasons. The mental toll has to be enormous, especially for a group of normal people who’ve effectively been thrust into a position as on-the-ground representatives for trauma and displacement that they’d never wanted to be. So it’s no wonder that Sologamy feels as wide a swerve away as Death Pill can muster, not only in its breadth of sound but its themes of welcoming self-care and acceptance.

Of course, that’ll inevitably be spun further, along the lines of revolutionary joy against tyrannical invasion and subjugation. It’s an interpretation, though the intended one, while still charged, appears more ground-level. The opening track’s single repeated line “Listen to me sister, let’s fuck the system!” is just the right kind of opening salvo for that, where Mariana Navrotska yelps and snarls as if she already has her fists flying. There are still not-great ways to illustrate that, sure, like how Monsters (In My Brain)’s theatrical ‘kookiness’ to simulate a twisted mind is as boilerplate as it comes. Even that song pulls it back, though, with a bracing hardcore back half and the discomfort from overlaid samples of police cars and women crying.

It’s indicative of the stitched-together nature of Sologamy, though worries of a similar unevenness across the board are largely unfounded. For as much as Death Pill throw in—spanning punk and hardcore, to grunge, alt-rock, pop-rock and even the faintest flickers of symphonic intent—they seem pretty well-versed in making it work. Across those bases, there’s rarely a bum note hit, largely thanks to production that blesses them with a universally ripping guitar tone. Phone Call is the poppiest cut on offer, and even it’s got the rock-breaking presence to feel flush with the thrashing punk of Haters Gonna Hate, or the grunge sneer of Ugly Me. As for the closing duo of Outro and Pro Yarika, Death Pill’s stab at a mini rock opera proves legitimately fruitful.

Clearly, then, there’s a lot of growth that’s gone on between the debut and Sologamy, in every way you look at it. Not only that, but Death Pill have taken to it all with resounding ease. The core of a punk band burdened with unspeakable adversity finally seems to have cracked, and out comes a newer, freer, devoid-of-barriers incarnation, ready to truly fly. That’s always what Death Pill was supposed to be, and them getting to live that out in such complete fashion really is good to see.

For fans of: Scowl, Shooting Daggers, Militarie Gun

‘Sologamy’ by Death Pill is released on 20th June on New Heavy Sounds.

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en MASSE

newviolenttrends

Isn’t it great when you get a new band that starts off strong, proceeds to almost completely overhaul themselves, and still ends up being good? On 2023’s Burdened Youth, en MASSE’s alignment with 2000s post-hardcore and emo was already a terrific start, made even better by how vicious Zack Santiago’s scream could be. newviolenttrends, in turn, is a pronounced leap from that, where the blurrier, alternative tones present on Lovesick Dead or Sincara have been extrapolated into full-on Deftones worship. Not to say that makes for a completely lateral move in quality or anything, but the gap is far narrower than you might anticipate.

But yeah, at the end of the day, you can say that newviolenttrends isn’t quite as good as what came before. It’s best illustrated in taketwo, the most explicit Deftones homage down to Santiago’s vocals picking up a very Moreno-esque churn, to the point where those heavy shades can overtake what was great about en MASSE in the first place. Pleasingly, though, it’s the only one of these four tracks where that’s a conscious issue. Everywhere else, this clearly feels like a development rather than a demolishment. masq does a great job at embossing what, at its core, is verging on a glassjaw song with this enormous, half-nu-metal crush. Later on, celine has its sharp angles worked into this grander mix instead of being subsumed by it, topped off by a scream that finds Santiago at his most flesh-flaying.

It also simply sounds great, way beyond what you might expect from a band still at their earlier stages. With how difficult making a big expanse sound compelling can be—especially when you’re hoping to match it with something else—there’s no issue of the sort on newviolenttrends. It’s another area of evident growth for en MASSE, far from aimless ambling in the hopes of happening across something that works. The brief flashes of that displayed on newviolenttrends aren’t chronic; when en MASSE lock in, push forth and dish out the means needed to work, this works excellently.

The real test will be in how this works outside of a four-song taster, but considering the good will that en MASSE have accumulated with, quite literally, everything they’ve put out, it’s not like there’s doubt. The way they’ve stepped so sure-footedly into newviolenttrends should give a good clue of their capabilities. It’s been a sizable re-up for them, and they’ve more or less nailed it first time. Better yet, he highlights of Burdened Youth are fuelling this direction, not hanging over it as what could’ve been. So while this is something new, it’s not at the expense of what they did so excellently in the past. Almost like that’s a good method for a band looking to grow, or something.

For fans of: Deftones, Finch, Moodring

‘newviolenttrends’ by en MASSE is released on 20th June on Fever Ltd..

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Words by Luke Nuttall