Dear Youth

Submerged in American hardcore and fueled by a Bury Your Dead–style rage, this hammering Los Angeles quintet, on their fourth album, explore the drama, horror, and comedy of their youth and how it informs their adulthood. There’s faint longing without mawkish nostalgia. “This is me/This is you/Yeah, we’re coming unglued” howls singer Jonathan Vigil on “Blank Pages” while the band march with furious guitars, bass, and drums. The melodic “Wide Eyed” and “My Endnote” recall the choices and scenes that pushed their tender hearts forward. Coproduced by A Day to Remember’s Jeremy McKinnon, the album slams top to bottom.

The fourth studio long-player from the West Coast metalcore unit, Dear Youth goes all in, doubling down on the band's penchant for crafting tightly wound, muscular, old-school screamo blasts of aggression with a punk-metal center.