ALBUM REVIEW: Escape – Future Palace
Escapism is often regarded as the tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, and is inordinately commonplace in the musical realm. There’s a connection between music and our emotional experiences as humans. Music has, in time, become a musical commodity in which we trade our own emotional experiences with each other as we soundtrack our lives. As the latest in a line of post-hardcore heart-pourers, German trio FUTURE PALACE bear all as they seek escapism from the physical and mental imprisonment they’ve experienced through toxic relationships and difficult upbringings on their aptly-titled debut, Escape.
Modern day post-hardcore, the kind riddled with synthetic slabs of sound and vocal mash-ups a la DREAM STATE, ENTER SHIKARI and SLEEPING WITH SIRENS, is at the core of FUTURE PALACE‘s DNA on Escape, although arguably at times, particularly in the album’s earlier moments, it drifts into unchartered waters, sitting somewhere between a Lynn Gunn-fronted HANDS LIKE HOUSES [Maybe] and a one-vocalist version of AMARANTHE [Ghost Chapter], which is frankly quite jarring.
It’s at the halfway mark on Lately that Escape finally feels as if its finding its feet, and FUTURE PALACE feel at home in their own skin as vocalist Maria’s (aka YouTuber ItsPandaCore) honey-soaked harmonies wrap around synchronising synths that whirl around your eardrums, before guitarist Manuel and drummer Johannes blast out the gates at breakneck speed, adding a metallic depth to their sound, illuminating the range-testing chorus. This is a formula FUTURE PALACE stick to throughout the remainder of Escape, which when they’re on it works wonders [Break Free, Anomaly], but when they fail to hit the mark, they miss it woefully [Parted Ways]. It’s in these moments they find themselves sounding far too like the bands that have come before them, which in a genre as overpopulated as the planet Earth, is an Achilles heel best being avoided in attempting to stand out from the crowd.
As much as Escape is about escapism, it is equally about empowerment. Channelling the inner torment of the experiences Maria has undertaken through both her childhood development and as an adult, FUTURE PALACE use their post-hardcore pummel to explore the taboo territories of domestic abuse and toxic relationships. This isn’t an area that’s totally new in post-hardcore, or in heavy music at all, however they set themselves apart by the way they make the messages hidden in the music accessible, interweaving their sound and their songs together.
Something New is the sound of a phoenix rising, with guitars and synths waging war as Maria delivers her near-spoken word vocals with an immediacy and urgency unheard of elsewhere on the record, giving the song’s subject of breaking through the barriers our own minds put in our way to achieve our goals and prove everyone else wrong an explosive deliverance.
Elsewhere, the lyrics take a poetic turn, cutting open the wounds and bearing their souls for all to see, whilst feeling somewhat at odds with the music behind them, as if you feel it should be a little more immediate, a little more reactive. However, in a world where we spend far too much time painting pictures of perfect lives, FUTURE PALACE pull no punches in bringing home the truth of what happens behind the scenes, perhaps most poignantly put across in lines like “get out of my way, get out of my head, because seeing my body completely bruised makes me hate myself” in Lately and “I feel so suffocated, all this anger and this hatred, against my agitator, act just like a mind dictator” in Maybe. It’s through these mirrors into their world that they allow listeners to find solace and escapism in from their own experiences, as well as the empowerment to rise up and fight.
FUTURE PALACE wear their hearts firmly on their sleeves, bringing their PVRIS-meets-post-hardcore arena-rock to the fore, standing out in a genre that’s often stuck in the mud.
Rating: 8/10
Escape is out now via Arising Empire.
For more information on FUTURE PALACE like their official page on Facebook.