EP REVIEW: A Sure Disaster – SeeYouSpaceCowboy & If I Die First

Cast your mind back to the heady days of the late noughties and early 2010s. In metalcore, the haircuts are at their floppiest, the jeans at their tightest, and the songs at their most anemic. Bands like PIERCE THE VEIL and SLEEPING WITH SIRENS with their mosquito voiced frontmen are coming into their own, and other more flavourless groups such as BLESSTHEFALL, A SKYLIT DRIVE and MEMPHIS MAY FIRE water down a subgenre of metal that has proven to be truly fantastic when done well. With this in mind, imagine what would have happened if SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY had been flung into the middle of this quagmire of mediocrity. The scene at the time would have been thankful we’re sure.

A Sure Disaster is the title of the split EP between SEEYOUSPACECOWBY and IF I DIE FIRST, and it puts to shame all of the previously mentioned metalcore groups in a savage flurry of skin peeling beatdowns and massive choruses. Each band has two songs to prove their worth, with the centerpiece of the split being the excellent bloodstainedeyes, which is a collaboration between the two groups. This is clearly a project made between friends, which has most likely been the only light in the darkness of the last 14 months. Both bands sound enthused and raw, and the collaboration bubbles with an energy that is guaranteed to get one pulling off some mosh acrobatics in their front room.

Coming off the back of their excellent 2019 debut album The Correlation Between Exit and Entrance Wounds, SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY pay homage to the music that they would have grown up listening to as teenagers, whilst adding their twist to the Myspace-era metalcore that inspired them. However, in paying homage, they have managed to better this era of music, smashing all the bands of the era into tiny gelatinous pieces with the level of savagery they bring to the tunes.

After coining the term sasscore for their first set of EPs, the group swiftly dropped the term for their debut, which worked to great affect. On A Sure Disaster, a little bit of the sass returns, and boy does it feel good. What emerges is the mastery of sheer savagery that was present of The Correlation Between Entrance and Exit Wounds, mixed with the verve and a humour of earlier releases. One can imagine having a solid mosh to these new tunes, but with more smiling and laughter at the same time. Vocalist Connie Sgarbossa has a scream that could strip paint, and in Painting A Clear Picture From An Unreliable Narrator flexes her ability to sing melodically. SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY sound huge on their two songs, with the skittering mathcore breaks and huge beatdowns beating the Myspace metalcore scene into a bloody pulp.

IF I DIE FIRST lie within the more traditional realms of Myspace-era metalcore, even going as far as to have two vocalists who share singing duties. They share a similar desire to riff as hard as SYSC, especially on opening number Mirror, Mirror This Is Nothing Like You Promised, which also features a great chorus. My Nightmares Would Would Do Numbers As Horror Movies really pays homage to Myspace-era metalcore, with a great soaring melodic chorus.

This is a great little EP, certainly evocative of a specific time. In paying tribute to the music of this time, SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY have bettered it, bringing their raw aggression and power to a genre that had a habit of sounding thin and very amorphous. Time for all you late 20 somethings to get your tattered VANS out of the cupboard and straighten that fringe, for Myspace metalcore is back. But better, in every possible way.

Rating: 8/10

A Sure Disaster is out now via Pure Noise Records. 

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