With the ringing in of the new year, it's time to bring back a classic from this blog's first year: Question of the Week. It's where I'll be asking a question out loud that's been in my head recently, and try to provide an answer that explains why it's an important question to ask. It fell by the wayside a bit towards the end of last year, so I'm bringing it back early in this one so I don't repeat the cycle in 2022.
This week's post will likely be the last one that looks back on 2021 as a whole, as we'll have new albums from Underoath and The Lumineers released on Friday to digest and discuss. Before we start the mad dash of creating another AOTY list for this year, I'm looking back a peculiar trend that popped up in the second half of the year: quite a few bands releasing EPs full of new music, rather than new albums. This trend quietly started in 2021, when Pup once again showed they have their finger on the pulse of the world when they released This Place Sucks Ass. You can also throw Bring Me the Horizon, who are all of a sudden one of the biggest rock bands in the world, into that mix. The band released what they're claiming to be the first of their Post-Survival EPs, and clearly have no signs of slowing down their production. When 2021 came around, even more bands ended up releasing a short burst of songs rather than a full album. I found this peculiar, but assumed it was mostly due to the uncertainty the pandemic provided. However, when I took a closer look, I noticed that there was a lot more that went into the decision to release each one. So for this week, I'll be taking a look at the "why" that lead to a few EPs that ended up as some of my favorite releases of the year.
The Devil Wears Prada - ZII It would be easy to chalk up TDWP's decision to release a follow-up to their beloved Zombie EP, especially after their last full-length The Act took the band's sound in some unexpected--and perhaps unwanted--directions. Still, to accuse the band of doing anything with any motivation other than to put out the best material possible is a sign that you haven't been that invested in their career. While the band have openly admitted that the idea was sparked by a bit of pandemic boredom, it's been reported that they only planned on doing one song to follow up. However, with 4 of the six members (guitarist Kyle Sipress, keyboardist/programmer Jon Gering, drummer Giuseppe Capolupo, and new bassist Mason Nagy) not in the band when the first Zombie adventure was released, ZII ended up being a very intriguing revisitation of a key era in TDWP history, and breathing new life into the concept.
Circa Survive - A Dream About Love While the pandemic has certainly affected Circa Survive's plans (they just announce the fourth round of postponed dates on their long-awaited Blue Sky Noise Tour), the portion of their career that's been hit the most is their plans of releasing new music. Now that the tour has already been pushed into the summer of 2022, it's unclear when the next Circa full-length is coming out, or if it ever is. Perhaps the band thought about this when they pushed out A Dream About Love, released towards the end of the year, but there may be a bit more behind this decision that has lingering effects on what's next for the band. A Dream About Love's initial reception was that the songs within were a drastic sonic shift away from the progressive "psychadelic punk" (their words, not mine) we're used to, opting instead for a more bare-bones approach. Could this EP be the first dose of what is to become a completely new era for the band? Either way, any booster of songs from Circa is a booster we can all get behind.
Like Moths to Flames - Pure Like Porcelain I've told anyone who will listen that Like Moths to Flames are on one of the biggest heaters in metalcore, with their previous two full-lengths Dark Divine and No Eternity in Gold being their two most consistently great records to date. While Divine was a big swing at the band trying a new sound, No Eternity took those new tricks the band developed and mixed them perfectly with their breakdown-heavy metalcore to make their best album yet. With all of this in mind, it's clear that the songwriting momentum the band are riding was a key factor in the creation and release of Pure Like Porcelain, another onslaught of screeching guitars from Jeremy Smith and Zack Pishney, and guttural screams from Chris Roetter. The band's resurgence has them on the rise once again, and it's a powerful--and brutal-- thing to see.
Knocked Loose - A Tear in the Fabric of Life I sat down and wrote these all out (okay, scribbled) in a notebook, and I honestly think that the number one reason that Knocked Loose released A Tear in the Fabric of Life was to tell the whole world "Fuck you, we're the best band on earth." And if that's true, they might actually be right. Seriously, what other band (outside of Code Orange) in the hardcore/metalcore scene has the vision to pull off a concept EP with it a corresponding animated short film. Sure, some bands could do it, but to release 5 songs of the quality that Knocked Loose did? There's only one, and it's them. We're all dealing with the pandemic in our own way, and while some of us are doing more than enough just getting through these difficult times, it's inspiring to see people use the time that they were given back from touring to do something so wholly unique, creative, and just so, so good. The world needs as many bands as we can get who are going to put this much care, attention, and passion into their music, and A Tear in the Fabric of Life firmly cements Knocked Loose in that group of bands.
In looking back at previous years, I'm not entirely sure that there were moreEPs released that caught my attention, per se, but the quality of the songs included in those EPs is truly what stood out this year. With the Omicron variant ruining winter tour plans (so far), it'll be interesting to see if more bands take advantage of their down-time this year to come out with more releases like these. What was your favorite EP of 2021?
Comments