The screamo resurgence that’s taken place as of late has been something to behold. With groups like Wristmeetrazor, and even one of our subjects here, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, leading the charge in bringing the genre back its rightful life over the past few years, it’s been a relatively unexpected yet welcome wave in heavy music. It feels as if all roads have led to here though, with A Sure Disaster feeling like a culmination of everything the revival has represented over the past few years.
I suppose it all makes sense that it would lead us here eventually, given the number of artists in the ‘emo rap’ wave who have pointed to alternative and heavier music as their main inspirations. This rings especially true with one of our two subjects today, If I Die First. Being led by emo rappers Lil Lotus and Lil Zubin, the post-hardcore/screamo revival group have been making waves over the past year or so, impressing with a fun debut EP, My Poison Arms, in 2020.
Screamo revivalists as these groups may be, though, they’re hardly living in the genre’s shadow. Sure, the influence of 2000s/early 2010s screamo groups like Alesana seems to be worn on both group’s sleeves, but make no mistake: this is a true, passionate modernization of the sound.
SeeYouSpaceCowboy’s contribution to this split opens the EP up with a bang. The group’s more mathcore-esque take on the genre’s sound leaves these two short tracks feeling wonderfully chaotic. “Painting a Clear Picture from a Unreliable Narrator” has this enthralling sense of unease to it. Its stylistically imperfect clean vocals, piercing screams, generally chaotic dissonance, and heavy instrumental replete with chugs and blast beats all work to feel like an ode to MySpace-era metalcore, but with a modern, more punishing spin.
“Modernizing the Myth of Sisyphus“, while extremely short (clocking in at just under two minutes), packs a lot into its quite runtime. Truth be told, I think this would have been a more apt opener, given just how much of a cold open it feels like. Opening fast and heavy and barely letting up for a second, continuing the trend set by the opener with its use of obnoxiously heavy chugs and blasts, its a quick and welcome spat of blind aggression. Its closing section switches things up in a strangely engaging way, with this kooky dance-able rhythm led by the drums, paired with those fantastically eerie and uneasy clean vocals seen in the opener. It’s certainly a unique way to end a song quite as dense and heavy as this, and it’s more than welcome.
The greatest highlight across this thing for me is mid-EP track and lead single “bloodstainedeyes“. The meeting point between the EP’s two halves, it serves as the only track featuring both groups. It’s a major standout for it, too, with the more melodic post-hardcore-styled chops of If I Die First meeting the pure, raw chaos of SeeYouSpaceCowboy’s sound. The track even descends into an almost deathcore-ish sound in its closing moments, with SYSC vocalist Connie Sgarbossa laying down a gnarly guttural scream over some tastefully downtempo chugs and dissonant chords. In fact, the vocal performances here in general are worthy of note. The clean vocal trade-off between If I Die First’s Lil Lotus and Lil Zubin, paired with the chaotic and emotive screams of both Lotus and Sgarbossa make for the most enjoyable and solid performance across the entire EP. It’s easily one of the most fun tracks of the year so far, and one that showcases the sonic spectrum of both groups together perfectly.
Then begins If I Die First’s half of the EP, and while much of the visceral chaos found on SYSC’s half isn’t as present here, that doesn’t discount just how heavy this half gets. “Mirror, Mirror This Is Nothing Like You Promised” opens with a bang. Being one of the heaviest tracks If I Die First have penned to date, the track features these insane fills and general drum work by drummer Derek Bloom, and a heavy focus on screamed vocals from Lotus, it’s a fantastic introduction to IIDF’s half of the EP. It’s also worth mentioning that the production here (and on the EP in general) is a marked improvement over My Poison Arms, having this greater sense of clarity to every instrument here, as well as the vocals. I can’t overstate just how dirty the tones are, and just how impactful the drums sound.
Closer and second single “My Nightmares Would Do Numbers As Horror Movies” closes the EP out with a more straightforward post-hardcore affair. Its more melodic sensibilities work to break up the EP’s constant lust for sonic chaos in an effective way. That’s not to say this track brings down the tempo at all, though, as it still gets blisteringly fast, yet again featuring some insane fill work from Bloom. The track actually ends up feeling like an appropriate homage to the sound of Bloom’s main project, legendary post-hardcore/screamo outfit From First To Last than the chaotic, almost mathcore-esque sound of the EP’s first half. In that sense, I suppose it doesn’t feel quite as appropriate to call this track an homage to that sound as much as the rest, but more an effective utilization of the group’s existing songwriting chops. It’s a great closer and, despite being easily the most accessible and melodically-inclined track on here, is still quite potently heavy.
I’ll admit, despite this project being quite short, it’s not perfect. Its focus more individual chaos between these songs, and its highly variable track runtimes leaves its pacing feeling a little disjointed and lacking in cohesion. It could be argued that the sporadic nature of its track listing is just falling in line with A Sure Disaster’s chaotic sound in general, but I personally would have preferred a more cohesive experience.
At just five tracks, A Sure Disaster admittedly left me wanting a bit more. That’s by no means an entirely bad sign, though. As it stands, A Sure Disaster is a quick flurry; a chaotic foray of screamo revivalism at some of its very best. It feels like a culmination of events, the logical endpoint to the last few years of trends in the wider alternative music spectrum. I do wish there was a bit more content here, and that the content on display flowed a little better, but these are five individually great tracks that make for a fun, chaotic and heavy listen. A Sure Disaster is available now via Pure Noise Records, and you can purchase or stream the EP here.
8.5/10