If you ever wanted to get into screamo, I mean true screamo, not the slightly more aggressive pop punk of The Used or the broad misnomer of ‘screamo’ that your aunt calls anything with harsh vocals, now is the time. Often called skramz, to avoid the mislabeling of the genre, screamo has been enjoying a renaissance, and if you are a regular reader of Everything Is Noise, you undoubtedly have seen our enthusiasm for this new wave of skramz covered in many premieres and reviews. However, if this is your first rodeo, I cannot think of a better band to offer up as a gateway drug to emotional hardcore than Nuvolascura.
Fully formed in 2016, California’s Nuvolascura merge skramz with mathcore and have quickly risen to the top tier of modern skramz acts. Their self-titled debut album and follow-up, As We Suffer From Memory And Imagination were met with critical acclaim and carried the band through many live shows. Now, five years after their sophomore album, Nuvolascura are preparing to release their third album, further pushing the boundaries they previously inhabited by adding even more extreme heaviness with more accessible melodic parts. The new album, titled how this all ends, is scheduled for release on July 8th via Zegema Beach Records and Icorrupt Records. Stream their latest single, “figment of reality”, below.
Nuvolascura wastes no time kicking you in the face with sharp riffs, powerful drums, and impassioned vocals, calling to mind Turnstile and Incendiary in equal measure, but as the track builds, Nuvolascura transition between even heavier breakdowns and sweetly (for skramz) melodies, introducing clean vocals, dual vocals, and gang vocals into the formula. Not to fall into softness, the track ends with a potent hardcore transition that at once invites the hardest moshing you’ve ever done with emotional catharsis, beckoning that satisfied feeling of a good workout and screaming your existential anguish into the night.
Nuvolascura says that “figment of reality” was one of the last songs written for how this all ends and their first song to feature these varied vocal stylings. Sometimes, these more traditional punk and emo elements can be a turn-off for me, but Nuvolascura handle them with enough confidence, vigor, and grace that I cannot help but be enthusiastic about this transition, and I cannot wait to hear the rest of the record. Follow Nuvolascura on Facebook, Instagram, and Bandcamp, and follow ZegemaBeachRecords and Icorrupt Records for more information about how this all ends as well as a consistent flow of excellent skramz and hardcore releases.
