ALBUM REVIEW: The Pretty Wild – ‘zero.point.genesis’

With The Pretty Wild’s debut releasing now, it’s worth taking stock of where metalcore is as we head into the new year. After all, if they’re set to be the genre stars of 2026, it helps to know what they’re getting into. Wth that in mind, then, metalcore’s 2025 has been…eventful, as always. Honestly, it’s getting so tiresome to see the most formulaic, overworked names get pedestalled time and time again, despite having nothing of their own to offer. If you’re confused about who that’s referring to, nine times out of ten, it’s just anyone who’s been deigned a bit of hype.

So what of The Pretty Wild, the brainchild of sisters Jyl and Jules Wylde whose rise has been facilitated through TikTok, and who’ve found themselves affixed with the perennially cringe ‘baddiecore’ tag? Well, if any of that has triggered a fight-or-flight response, don’t panic—they’re actually alright. They’ve got that Motionless In White feel to them, which is always good for a more developed, stylistically sturdy metalcore work. More specifically, though, they’ve got a real air of Not Enough Space about them, a band whose debut Weaponize Your Rage came out a few months ago and wore the ‘Hot Topic metalcore’ shtick with far greater proficiency.

As an analog to that, zero.point.genesis takes a slight diversion into a different part of the paddock, though ultimately remains super-stylised in its efforts. With the vibe, the artwork and the fact that there’s literally a song called Button Eyes on here, you can intuit that Coraline played on regular rotation in the Wylde household. The mall-goth aesthetic cakes this thing, and to see The Pretty Wild so committed to maintaining it does feel like more than just farming nostalgia stims. There’s a bit of that in songs like The Trial and AFTERLIFE, but even then, it’s the palette of the style rather than a deliberate gentrification of it. A deeper exploration comes with the sawing violin on the title track, or further strings on Omens that are definitely programmed but perfectly flush with mood all the same.

That’s the thing with zero.point.genesis—for the gargantuan walls of production looming over every aspect, it’s too natural to be considered an issue. It’s a corner case where ‘overmixed’ isn’t a pejorative; it’s practically a necessity. Again, it’s the Motionless In White slant coming into full view, where the first moments of the opener Paradox slam into view in that exact, effective way. This is a huge-sounding album, guttural, trench-deep and tucked to perfection for maximum efficiency. Even in steps towards different territory entirely, The Pretty Wild keep an unbreakable lock on the creative sharpness that works for them. The big one is Living Ded, anchored in metal-punching dance-rock that’s as firm and formidable as you like. Bigger swings like the Deftones-skewing h ALf a Li VE or the quasi-Evanescence closer Persephone, meanwhile, are more open, though still clad in a sturdy, pitch-black carapace.

Tying it all together are vocals from both Wyldes that fit into largely the same moulds as everything else. Screams are stylised in a way that wrenches unstuck their viciousness and volatility, with further front-facing compression for as brutal a locus as can be mustered. It’s impressive when a song like Priestess is so adamant against pulling punches in execution, to where not a bit of free space is clearly the point. Cleans are, expectedly, less standout, but if you can dislodge how there’s an inordinate number of sections that’d fit as Reputation-era Taylor Swift songs (vocal tone included), they do belong on this particular canvas. On a song like Button Eyes especially, about reclaiming personal power after severing toxic connections, the added lens of femininity does a lot for it.

Put everything together and you definitely get a good picture of why estimations for The Pretty Wild are so high going forward. The tedium of modern metalcore is craving something like this, just to block its parade of pop-metal mannequins with nothing to offer. Not that there’s a dearth of artifice on this, either, but at least it’s arranged to sound exciting. And that’s all you can really ask for from zero.point.genesis. Nothing is being reinvented or reshaped by another Motionless In White soul fragment, but if it can stand on its own merits and feel worthwhile in the scene, what’s not to appreciate? This is, after all, something that metalcore needs, and The Pretty Wild look set to deliver on that significantly.

For fans of: Motionless In White, Deadlands, Not Enough Space

‘zero.point.genesis’ by The Pretty Wild is released on 21st November on Sumerian Records.

Words by Luke Nuttall