Skip to main content

Hereisaropegoodluck blast onto the scene with their debut album, which is filled with destructive, modern grind and groovy deathcore moments.

Release date: July 19, 2024 | Wax Vessel Records | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp

I picked a difficult moment to first listen to Hereisaropegoodluck’s debut album NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT.

Picture this. It’s four o’clock in the morning and I’m standing in a passport control line at Istanbul Airport. I’ve yet to have any coffee or food. I’ve probably managed an hour of sleep at best. What do I decide to do? Do I turn on some ambient music, enter zen mode, and gently float along to my gate? Or do I instead listen to an album that has a beautiful cover with an indecipherable metal band logo printed on it? An album that received a delightful review from EIN’s Editor-in-Chief that simply read ‘this fucks’.

Obviously, because I’m an absolute cretin, I went for option two.

Opening track “WE’VE HOWDIED, BUT HAVEN’T SHOOK” instantly got my head moving and feet tapping. Bouncy riffs paired with an atmospheric tremolo-picked guitar line are backed by relentless, grinding drums. My jerky head movements probably gave other flyers the impression I’ve got the nods, but really I just wanted to jump on the counter and see if I could organise a wall of death as “STARTING A FIGHT IN AN EMPTY HOUSE” made its best attempt at blowing out my eardrums.

It becomes apparent to me, even while I’m reveling in the bliss of being pleasured by revolting slams and gruesome blast beats, that this isn’t a run-of-the-mill grindcore album. This has a delectably modern and tight production that is more reminiscent of a deathcore band than a gutter-dwelling grind act.

Michael Carroll, from the now-defunct mathcore band Destroyer Destroyer, handles all instrumentation and effortlessly swings between feral grind and ferocious beatdowns. Even more impressive is his ability to include mathcore influences that add that extra touch of spiciness, as heard on the wonderfully named “I’M THE ONLY HELL MY MAMA EVER RAISED”.

I’d be remiss by not mentioning the additional textures thrown in across the album, though. While Hereisaropegoodluck is undeniably unrelenting in fury, there are moments of respite, like on “FINDING A WHISPER IN THE WHIRLWIND” or “DOWN WITH THE SNAKES”’s ending where more atmospheric moments allow listeners to relish in the relative calm before the storm.

Of course, the vocalist, Brian Cole, does his best to ensure that he doesn’t let up on the ferocity throughout NOTHING TO WRITE HOME ABOUT. Every time he opens his mouth only the most guttural of growls or throat-shredding of shrieks will do. You can almost feel his spit misting you, smile spreading across your face as you watch him trash everything in sight.

When one of your main hobbies is discovering new music, it’s honestly a huge pleasure to come across a band putting out a fresh-sounding debut album. So much has already been done in the rabid worlds of grind and deathcore. It’s nice to hear a band that has effortlessly melded the two together in a way that is exciting and never tiresome, the latter helped likely by the relatively short run time.

If I had to complain about one thing, it is the relative silence around this release from music websites. Fun grindcore albums from bands that aren’t solely focused on the tired tropes of bukkake and shit wordplay are one in a million and I don’t want this one to slip through the cracks. Hell, I even told my poor, poor mother to check it out (inadvertently going against the very title of the album by writing home about it). More people need to get on this album and share it around because if this doesn’t put a smile on your face while you manically punch holes in the walls of your house, I think you might be lost to us.

Leave a Reply