N.B. This is a guest post from HeySharpshooter.Metal and hardcore have not always gotten along. Hardcore purists were disgusted with the hard-party antics and musical snobbery of metalheads, while metalheads scoffed at hardcore’s simplistic musical style and what they perceived as a stuck up straight edge philosophy. And while metalcore, a mix of the two genres, has become arguably the most popular form of extreme music in history, purists on both sides still don’t get along.
There have been a handful of bands, however, that have transcended this decades long war and become darlings of both sides. Early crossover thrash bands like Vio-Lence and DRI were some of the first, followed closely by the grindcore and power violence bands of the late 80’s and early 90’s like Extreme Noise Terror and Infest. Then came Converge, one of the greatest extreme music artists in history, whose blistering mix of hardcore and grindcore made them beloved on both sides. A handful of technical metalcore bands, like The Red Chord and Between the Buried and Me, have also made in roads. But there are few bands that can claim fans on both sides of this struggle.
Trap Them are one of those bands. Since the band’s debut album Sleepwell Deconstructor, Trap Them have claimed both hardcore and metal purists as fans. Their combination of hardcore tempo, vocals and energy with a brutal guitar tone any metalhead would love has made them one of the hottest young acts in both scenes. The crowd during their live performances is often split down the middle, with separate mosh pits and dance pits(and the more than occasional fist fight).
Darker Handcraft, the bands most recent release, exemplifies this synthesis of the two genres as well as any album ever produced. Avoiding the pratfalls that doom many bands who combine the genres, Trap Them have created a dark, pulsating hardcore sound that drips with emotion (namely rage, hate and disgust), but that is also surprisingly technical and musically innovative. There is something here for everyone: “Slumcult & Gather” pummels the listener with thrash-y riffs and pounding drums while occasionally shifting into two-step hardcore and old school grindcore, while “Manic in the Grips” will make any fan of Integrity grin. The final track, “Scars Align,” is a mix of mid-tempo death metal and sludgecore that smashes the listeners skull in and uses their brain as a kickball. The bands penchant for technical riffs and diverse song structure, the aspects that make them so appealing to metal fans, is stronger than ever on Darker Handcraft, but they retain the energy and tempo’s that gets dance pits started.
By far one of the best albums of the year, Darker Handcraft is one of those rare crossover albums that stands up to the demands of two different genres at once while at the same time transcending them. This album is likely to join Jane Doe, Slave and a handful of other releases as among the greatest crossover albums ever to have been released.
Rating: 9.5/10
Download here.
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