Of Night and Light's 'Broken' Is Sad, Heavy Upstate New York Post-Hardcore

Of Night and Light’s ‘Broken’ is expansive, sad and heavy alt-rock from Buffalo, New York. “Inspired by the genre-bending styles of bands such as Thrice, Saosin, and Brand New,” the band aims to fuse, “dynamic vocals with delayed, rhythmic guitar chops, aggressive overdriven bass riffs and eclectic drum fills.” They are in search of “a full-bodied sound that moves from the quiet, effect-laden swells of indie rock to heavy instrumentals and breakdowns more reminiscent of hardcore and metal.” The band’s mission statement seems to line up pretty well with post-hardcore’s broad, genre-wide goals. To a great extent, they accomplish them. After a moody, mid-paced intro, the band slowly works their way up to their emotional peak at the end of the song. In a lot of ways, they kind of find that nice middle ground between accessibility and potency. The vocals and melodic work are kind of light and maybe sort of radio-rock oriented, but under that, the piercing bass tone and pounding drums give the track some chops. This is not the most original thing ever – it certainly adheres pretty closely to the blueprint put forward by groups like Brand New and Thrice – but it’s definitely a solid take on the genre. Check out ‘Broken’ below!