Earthbøund get themselves some metalcore with 'Continuum' single

Enter the space time prog-metalcore continuum with Earthbøund's latest.

If you're looking for some Australian 'progressive-metalcore' to sink your teeth into lately, perhaps South Gippsland crew Earthbøund will get you all nice and covered with their latest single, 'Continuum'.

Released on Triple J Unearthed, 'Continuum' is an improvement over last year's 'Liquify' EP - it's a fine enough new track! The song's got a pretty aggro pace to it, and it remaining under the three-minutes helps up-keep that energy; it doesn't go on long enough for it to get too stale. Frontman Tom Armstrong's screams seemed to have improved too, the vocalist sounding more confident and powerful now. He sounds driven by a lot more anger and conviction here, and that does lift the music up, as it gives it an extra set of teeth. However, while not bad, the clean singing parts that interject the screams and heavier moments aren't as strong a hook or as good of a melodic change up as the band may have thought. They don't really add anything that memorable to the song; sounding more obligatory for their genre rather than specifically meaningful for the piece itself and the band's sound.

Whilst Earthbøund are still probably one of the better up-and-coming metalcore bands in the local Australian music scene, there's just a little too much Architects cosplaying going on here for my liking. What with this track's production, Jake Kershaw's and Daniel Drowley's tunings, lead parts, noise-gated djenty riffs, plus that one "bleugh" and the overall song-structure. Now, that descriptor could apply to many other bands, but we aren't talking about those bands; we're chatting about Earthbøund. And I love those U.K. lads as much as the next guy (except for when they're lamely pulling out of festivals because of how they're billed on the goddamn poster), but I believe Earthbøund have more creativity in their song-writing tank than simply aping the sounds and tones of artists like Architects, Polaris and Northlane. Hopefully, that perceived depth will shine through clearer and harder on future material, whenever it drops.

If you're interested, though, go and enter Earthbøund's continuum below: