EP REVIEW: Yours, With Malice – Youth Code
YOUTH CODE are back with a new EP and a new era, this American duo is not here to mess around, with them leaving everything on the table and proceeding to smash that table into a million tiny pieces. The new EP Yours, With Malice is a gut buster of an EP, that seems to have ruptured a hole in the space time continuum because either YOUTH CODE have a time machine, or Trent Reznor has died and has possessed these two with some incredibly passionate fusions of genres.
From the opening track No Consequence you are blasted with vocalist Sara Taylor’s intense punk screams and shouts, sounded all at once like NINE INCH NAILS, REFUSED and THE DISTILLERS; to create vocals that just hit perfectly for this kind of instrumental. An instrumental which is one of the most perfectly layered and mixed coming from such an underground artist. Keyboardist Ryan George brings together a series of tracks that have elements of industrial, electronica and metal. This track is sure to completely infect its listener with hate that can only be released by a mosh pit.
The EP swiftly moves onto go deeper into this band’s proverbial rabbit hole and deeper into its sinister and commanding presence with the track Wishing Well. Again, reinforcing the band’s aggression and their sheer commitment to this abrasive sound with punchier lyrics, drums and bass creating a cacophony of synchronised chaos.
This EP also marks a reinvention for the band, going from far more gothic and ethereal sounds to their music, to this EP that sounds far darker and angry, Taylor’s vocals are more of a focus here, the shouts are less drowned out and the passion is turned up to 11. In terms of instrumentals, George speeds everything up giving the songs a tempo that does not stop to ask if its listener is okay; it bombards the eardrums leaving a breathless unrelenting EP that any lover of darker and harder music will absolutely enjoy.
Rating: 8/10
Yours, With Malice is out now via Sumerian Records.
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