Emotional hardcore vets Carrion Spring return to give us punk’s communal spirit with their newest album, THOSE WE LOST AND CONTINUE TO LOSE.
Release date: March 6, 2026 | Zegema Beach Records | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
I saw the classic punk band Descendents over the weekend, and it reminded me of how special the world of punk and hardcore can be. There is something about sharing space with often like-minded people and reveling in the music that brought you all together. I know that this is a shared experience in principle to any concert, but the rebellious and community-focused nature of punk and hardcore music elevates that experience into something healing, and at this point in my life, nostalgic. For as much as I worry about nostalgia becoming stagnation (I have no desire to relive ‘glory days’), there is no denying its appeal and comforts. Fortunately, I had been appreciating a different sense of nostalgia from something new for the entire week prior.
That has been emotional hardcore act Carrion Spring‘s latest album, THOSE WE LOST AND CONTINUE TO LOSE. Like many offerings from Zegema Beach, THOSE WE LOST AND CONTINUE TO LOSE gives me nostalgia for my teenage years in the early 2000s, going to small venues and DIY spaces to see punk and hardcore of a variety of shades, but Portland’s Carrion Spring tap into sounds that I never really got to see in their prime, that is equally melodic and aggressive emotional hardcore. I saw my fair share of emo and screamo acts, but none of them ever matched the melodicism and longer song structures of one of my all time favorite bands, At The Drive-In. The merger of post-hardcore into tense, emotive music has remained elusive to me since then. Billy Talent, Thursday, and a few others scratch that itch, but I somehow had never heard Carrion Spring until recently.
Perhaps this is due to the timing of it. I had more or less given up on an ATDI reunion and was exploring other genres in 2008, when Carrion Spring formed. It seems as though they remained just behind the very trend that would have made them hugely popular 6 years earlier. So, they’ve remained much more underground since then, but even as a newcomer to the band, I am very grateful to be a fan, now. From the first riff on THOSE WE HAVE LOST AND CONTINUE TO LOSE I knew I was in for a good time. “ABJECT DISASTER” sets the mood, classically aggressive, with low, rumbling bass, snappy drums that shift and move like water to the ever morphing guitar melodies, and a vocal performance that occasionally recalls not only Acrobatic Tenement-era ATDI, but also Guy Picciotto, albeit a little lower register than either of those legends.
Still, the inflections and aggressiveness are there. Take the end of “POCKET FULL OF POSEURS”, where vocalist Adam Brock Ciresi gives us a, ‘YEAH! YEAH! Great catastrophe/the cleanse is defiled/several decades of dispossession, YEAH/great catastrophe!‘ so that each syllable becomes more impassioned and direct. Meanwhile, Ciresi and Stevie Son’s guitars lock into counter melodies in each track, a hallmark of what everyone calls ‘Midwest emo,’ now, but with the slight touches of distortion, Gareth Welker’s dense bass, and Ben Scott’s kinetic drumming, they sound much heavier than American Football ever did. “CARRION PHASE SPRINGS ETERNAL” starts with these counter melodies before shifting into denser post-hardcore territory. These dynamics are bolstered by recording engineer/producer Kurt Ballou‘s experienced hand, one that seems to only make good records.
“THE WORLD IS NO LONGER A BEAUTIFUL PLACE AND I”M AFRAID TO DIE” veers into noise-rock territory, sludgey bass and oddball guitar flourishes drive this track, while still maintaining the emo/punk vibes as it closes with an incredible build up that would be amazing to see live. This is followed by the more straightforward hardcore punk of “I”M NOT FIGHTER” that reminds me of AFI before their emo-era. While most of this album hangs in the tried and true mid-paced emotional hardcore spectrum, tracks like these add variety and show Carrion Spring‘s range and ability to write compelling songs with multiple influences. Their sequencing keeps the 45 minute album from feeling stale, as that can be a long time to listen to music that can sound this caustic and go this hard.
Carrion Spring wear their hearts and influences on their sleeves, though a lot of the emotion on THOSE WE HAVE LOST AND CONTINUE TO LOSE is directed at the systems that make us lose people. Emo tropes be damned. Now is a time for protest music, if I’ve ever seen one (which, I have, for my entire life), as being an informed person is like living in a waking nightmare. So, if you want some melodic, angry, and very well made hardcore with emo leanings and touches of post-hardcore to make you feel like it is 2002, or if you want to feel all of the justifiable and essential anger of living today, this record is for you; cathartic, catchy, and ready to foster community to punks worldwide.
