The Amsterdam Red Light District, abbreviated to TARLD, return with their third full-length titled, Trapped. The melodic hardcore quartet join the likes of Resolve and LANDMVRKS who are quietly putting the French hardcore and metalcore scene on the rise in Europe and America. Establishing a foothold with album Gone For A While and Sapere Aude, the group presented a frenzied sound that today can line up alongside the lines of Fever 333 and Stray From The Path. Now with Trapped, TARLD look to firmly cement themselves in the hardcore punk space.
Trapped is a beefy album, with the opening moments amped by two notable features. First comes from Japanese vocalist Yukina of metal group HANABIE., which is one of the most surprising features this year. The dual assault of harsh from Yukina and TARLD frontman Elio Sxone, layered with some headbanging riffs, creates an opener that puts the listener on firm notice of what is to come. Follow-on feature from Stay From the Path’s Drew York follows suit, with some beatdown moments intertwined to give it is flavour, and closing out with some melodic moments and gang chants. Whilst the two features do give Trapped a hot start, another feature in the first five tracks leaves the the record feeling somewhat front-heavy on the feature front.
There is a definitive character to the record that TARLD have made their signature, with their tracks throughout promoting a progressive mindset and direct action. These lyrics find their home nicely in the hardcore punk sound that they’ve crafted here, that, at times, of a pleasant nostalgia evoked by similar bands of the 90s and 00s. This reaches its peak in the standout track of the latter half, “Freedom Is A Moment“; with its angsty and direct nature it’s difficult not to get wrapped up in their message. The track shakes the latter half out of a somewhat lull. While TARLD have taken their sound up a notch with this record overall, it needed an injection of variety in its later moments which one of the earlier features could have provided if placed later.
Trapped as a record is one worth exploring and picking out moments from, but ultimately it’s an album and a sound that needs to be heard live to fully appreciate. While traversing through, it’s difficult to not envisage how some of these slamming breakdowns or huge riffs would sound live and get a crowd moving. With Trapped, TARLD have firmly put themselves at the front of the pack in the French scene. Now all we need is for TARLD to cross the English channel for a tour with HANABIE. on support.
7.5/10
Trapped will release via Blood Blast on May 20th and can be pre-ordered here.