A Thrashing New Track from Breaking The Undertow
The latest release from Breaking The Undertow comes through with a pulse-pounding, super hard-hitting blend of hardcore, metal, and thriving energy that all come together to create something with a heavy-handed impact, inventive riffs, some surprises around the corners, and huge intensity all around.
The new track is called "Arson On Lowry Drive", and doesn't waste much time coming right in with some fierce guitar work. The tone of the guitars themselves pays a huge tribute to why the song comes at you with such great aggression.
As the song unfolds, you can hear different kinds of guitar work that range from slightly nu-metal to classic metal, alternative rock, and even augmented chords that feel almost death metal-ish.
One of the things I loved about this track is simply soaking in the slew of influences that it actually embodies.
The percussion across this song is super crazy, too. There are a lot of intricate and different time signatures; some of those surprises come from the drumming. I feel like a lot of the rest of the track pushes off the energy of the drums themselves.
The vocals are absolutely fiery. He's got such a range in terms of his screaming and singing; he can go melodic and a little softer, or really fierce and intense whenever he wants to.
There are a few different approaches to the screaming across the track, which I definitely like, and also back to some of the different influences in metal that the artist utilizes.
Another thing I really loved about this release was the number of changes that it went through. There are some really cool changes in rhythm and tone, arrangement, and approach that sort of blew me away simply because I wasn't expecting them.
There's a lot of sort of bouncy, mosh pit-style rhythms and thrashing going on throughout the song, and it never lets up its energy for even a second.
One man pretty much takes control of it all.
Breaking The Undertow is the brainchild of Trevor Heaslip, who absolutely performs guitars and vocals across everything he does, but likely also does the drumming and bass guitars as well.
So, what blows me away most is that he would imagine a song like this was a vision at first, and this one songwriter was able to bring that to fruition in a particular way.
It makes you wonder if he starts with drums first or guitars. Where do you begin when it comes to creating such a massive and high-energy, thrashing metal track like this one?
It's a very cool thing to think about, and I can't help but wonder how close the track came to the original vision that Trevor must have had in his head in the first place.
It certainly sounded like fun to record. The guitar performances are really hard-hitting, and it's amazing how one person can pull off this live performance kind of energy.
As soon as you listen to this track, you want to go see it performed live by a full band.
It's very full-bodied, lush, and thick with great guitars, and the way it was tracked and mixed also pays a lot of tribute to how the overall soundscape and atmosphere come out in the end.
You can tell there was a lot of thought and attention paid to not just the tones of the instruments and the performances of the vocals, but the overall arrangement.
How the drums would fit into place, along with some of the riffs he might have had before the drums were even created.
The deeper into the track you go, the cooler it gets. I'm not just saying that, it honestly gets cooler. Halfway through the song, you start hearing these kinds of Gothic, almost organ-style keys that fill the space and add a different layer to the atmosphere of the track itself.
This brings a depth and almost cinematic heaviness that has a bit of a darker overtone.
Those keys alone add a sort of mood to the track that wasn't there before they came in.
So, you can tell that he put those in there to give the track a certain aesthetic as it unfolded, and this worked perfectly.
I have to say, the very end of this track is so amazingly done. It is the most sort of experimental and almost even the heaviest part of it all.
It's a massive, breakdown-style riff that goes into a slower, more halftime rhythm, and all kinds of great post- and after-effects are used to really make this ending sound blistering.
Now, don't get me wrong, the entire track is pretty in your face. It shreds, it punches, it has that raw and Unstoppable energy and tone, but there are certain parts of the song that pop up, like the ending, that really just, not just take you by surprise, but make you want to go back and re-listen to everything again so you can get to those parts.
You have to love songs like that. Tracks that you listen to and some of the parts of it are so cool that you want to re-listen to the song to hear those particular favorite sections again.
This song has at least three of those parts.
So, go check this track out and turn it up because that's how it was meant to be heard.
While you're at it, absolutely check out the back catalog of Breaking The Undertow as well, because then you can really get more of a feel for all the different approaches that the project takes on.
I can tell you that if you dig this track, you should really be into the rest of them.
Check this out now.
