Errorzone

one of the most acclaimed metalcore records of the past few years, the hype for errorzone was CRAZY in 2018. i remember diggin it at the time like everybody else but i wasn't as obsessed with it as others seemed to be, and i haven't really bumped much vein (or i guess its vein.fm now) since then, so i thought i would give errorzone another listen. a RE-EVALUATION, if you will.

i don't have as much to say as i thought i would, though. that's not a diss on errorzone cuz this shit fuckin GOES! mathcore isn't my absolute favorite style of hardcore--i'm not crazy about wild time signatures or absurdly technical instrumentation--but on their debut, vein play a fairly straightforward kind of metalcore which i wouldn't describe as "scattered" like i would other mathcore bands. while it is a categorically mathcore album with all the odds and ends that come with it, i feel like labeling it as such tells you less about the kind of record it is than emphasizing its Y2K-era nostalgia. yes, there are some unconventional time signatures and typically mathematical mannerisms, but this is absolutely a throwback to the metalcore of the 2000's. some of the melodic passages remind me of florida bands like underoath and poison the well, while a lot of the riffs give me norma jean vibes--and of course, i'd be remiss not to mention massachusetts metalcore mainstays CONVERGE. vein do still sound like a modern band, preventing them from feeling like some lame nostalgia-fed ripoff act, but it's clear where their influences are derived from. there are even some nu metal-inspired passages which led to some people calling vein a nu metalcore band, but i'd disagree with that assertion: real nu metalcore bands (think cane hill) sound more like nu metal with hardcore tendencies, whereas vein are first and foremost a metalcore band with occasional inflections of nu metal. i guess it doesn't matter too much which way you slice it cuz those moments are kinda few and far in between anyway.

overall the sound of this record is aggressive, punchy, SUPER energetic (obviously) and despicably heavy at times. i totally see why some people have embraced vein as one of the sickest bands in the scene right now. don't be surprised if this album rises the ranks of my favorite modern metalcore releases; next time vein come through philly, i might just have to catch em.