Metalcore is alive and well in Harrisburg, PA, where If Not For Me just dropped a new EP, called Capture the Current on Standby Records. The EP was produced by Grammy nominees Grant McFarland and Carson Slovac of Atrium Audio/Think Loud Studios. To prime the pump, the band released a music video for “First One’s Free,” the opening track on the EP.
Comprised of Patrick Glover (vocals), Hayden Calhoun (guitar, vocals), Zac Allen (bass), and Sterling Hershey (drums), If Not For Me has shared the stage with August Burns Red, Wage War, and Ice Nine Kills.
“First One’s Free” opens with a piercing guitar, followed by muscular drums and an excruciatingly powerful bassline. I love the ascending squall of the guitar playing against the blast beats. Glover’s growling scream injects the tune with dark, fiendish energy. Stuttering guitar pulses accented by Hershey’s sharp hits on the china cymbal bolsters the hazardous, almost industrial, tension.
When Glover transitions to melodic vocals on the chorus, the velvety tonal textures add peculiarly intense hues of refined sonority. The backing harmonics of the chorus shimmer with bright sparkling notes of streaming pigments, suffusing the tune with rapier-like resonance.
The video juxtaposes images of the band performing with titanic get-up-and-go alongside visuals of a deteriorating relationship. Subtle tints of blue and red lighting imbue the video with vampiric potency, a kind of dreaming inversion of existence when compared to the carefree clarity of reality.
“First One’s Free” is gee-whiz good, full of burly guitars, a dazzling solo, and Hershey’s earth-shattering drumming. If the other four tracks on the EP exhibit the same hefty oomph as “First One’s Free,” then Capture the Current is a must-have.
If you reside in the Eastern half of the U.S., see If Not For Me live:
JUL 26- Cherry Street Station- Wallingford, CT (/Engage the Threat/ Our Own Destruction/ Everybody Hates Me); AUG 24 – Bungalow Bar & Grill- Manchester, NH; AUG 26- Sandusky, OH; AUG 28- Smith’s Olde Bar- Atlanta, GA (w/The Keepsake/Winter is Coming/Letting Go + MORE); AUG 30- Stanhope House – Main Stage- Stanhope, NJ (w/ Letting Go); SEP 1- The Low Beat- Albany, NY.
If Not For Me Social Links: Facebook
