Not arriving without controversy after the recent release of a music video for ‘These Lights’, YOUR DEMISE’s ‘The Golden Age’ represents a big shift in focus for the band. From the very first listen, the band have become something altogether “geared to success” with the release, and it may bring them as many problems as it does opportunities.
The thing with the ‘The Golden Age’ is that despite a few underlying faults, it’s not bad, but it is certainly an album that stands to divide the band’s listenership. It’s not even because it’ll appeal to the casual listener far more than previous efforts or carries more “melodic” moments than the band have attempted before, it’s because underneath the stylistic changes and genre hopping, the album represents quite a large attitude change in the YOUR DEMISE camp.
First up, the guest appearances. Enlisting members of YOU ME AT SIX and EVAROSE isn’t a musically a bad move, both appearances are tasteful and well executed, it’s just that both will likely raise an eyebrow with those who’ve followed the band loyally, and the fact that this was probably fairly obvious to the band sends a a distinct message to their fans. The deliberate nature of the changes makes the album feel a little forced in places, and when they look back on the record, whether they’ve either done something very brave or something very stupid will become all too clear.
All of that considered, and disregarding the fact it’ll probably go down terribly with the hardcore old guard, ‘The Golden Age’ really isn’t a bad album – in fact, it’s very listenable, and it’s not a bad thing that the band have are trying something to bring new elements to a genre they’ve successfully flexed their muscles and excelled in (even if the changes arrive with mixed results).
Elements of mid-nineties Epitaph bands, skate punk and contemporaries like SET YOUR GOALS all mash together with the band’s hardcore roots fairly well, asides from the moments where it goes a little far into the melodic end of things or gets a little too silly – the chorus of ‘These Lights’ rightly rubbed a few up the wrong way, and outbursts like “motherfucker” and “Your Demiiiiise, 2012, bitch” certainly won’t help, despite clearly being tongue in cheek.
“The Golden Age gamble” will probably pay dividends for YOUR DEMISE – the sporadic style crossovers cater to the attentions spans of a new generation of punk and hardcore fans, and though it’s fairly likely this move is going to cause a few loyal followers to throw in the towel with the band, it’s doubtful they’ll even care come 2013.
Not surprisingly, the band’s strengths lie firmly in their roots, with songs like ‘Push Me Under’ and ‘The Colour Of Envy’ containing the band’s most confident vocal and instrumental work on the album, but even through the slightly ropier melodic/skate punk sections, mixed bag of guest vocals and eyebrow raising lyrics, it’s hard not to give YOUR DEMISE credit for being ambitious and not taking themselves too seriously in a genre that often needs to lighten up a little.
In the future, it’ll genuinely be interesting to see what the band do with the new elements they’ve added to their sound, and they don’t feel quite perfected on ‘The Golden Age’, but you have to feel they will be come the next record.
TOM AYLOTT