City of Industry’s ‘Guilt’ is deep, rough melancholic hardcore with a lo-fi take. These guys describe themselves as, “a three-piece hardcore-punk band from Seattle, Washington.” They call this new single, “an approachable, yet melodic take on what they see to be hardcore punk.” I’m definitely a big fan of this, but I don’t know if it could be described as approachable or melodic. There is kind of a cold, brisk higher-register chord progression here that moves both in tandem with and ahead of the song at large, but it really just adds to the cryptic, ancient creepiness of the track. It’s not an uplifting melodicism like what Underoath or Counterparts would go after. The lo-fi production is a very strong stylistic choice on here, but it feels like in terms of recording, especially with the bass and the guitar, a greater effort needs to be put toward establishing a clear sound – even if it does have to retain a clear sense of fuzziness. It’s hard to do something new in a genre as heavily-tread and boxed in as hardcore punk, but these guys have managed to capture both a unique aesthetic and a differentiated compositional approach. Check out ‘Guilt’ below!
Noah Zucker // IG – @zucker.n // Twitter – @zuckern13