ALBUM REVIEW: New World Heat – Fox Lake
We’ve done our time with the legacy of LIMP BIZKIT. Fred Durst’s baggy-jeaned bravado and the – he said, she said – bullshit that turned nu-metal on its head in the nineties. Even now, hip-hop heavy has the same heat as it did when the Undertaker rolled into Wrestlemania XIX on a Harley. Headlining Reading Festival aside, the influence of the chocolate starfish has captivated the next generation, thankfully without the need for backwards baseball caps.
Whilst bands like BLACKGOLD, SILLY GOOSE and JOEY VALENCE AND BRAE crash the system with their larger-than-life lyrics, on the extreme end of the musical spectrum, Denver wrecking crew FOX LAKE has been asking for trouble. With the release of their second album, New World Heat, they take a sledgehammer to the concrete foundations of nu-metal, alongside hardcore and hip-hop, to assemble their latest sonic skyscraper of monstrous proportions, a domineering and in-your-face presence on any horizon.
Anticipation of chaos is inevitable at the beginning of this record. From the record scratches that become the beating pulse of the record, to the standoff between the listener and the band as the track launches into a breakdown. A spoken voice introduces the record with a statement or a call to arms: “You pick the tune and I’ll pick the dance.” For The Love Of The Game is just all that, an opening track with the intent of making a brutal introduction to the new era of the band. Snarling guitars open the floodgates with a magnificent payoff.
Sliding almost seamlessly into Tough Luck, an extension of the brutality pushes the track to its limits. Like most bands of the heavy persuasion, New World Heat is not set out to prove anything; its damage lies in how much of an emotional outlet it can be, designed to make the biggest impact. In the same way that bands like GRIDIRON and HEREDITARY push rap to the edge in a pure and hedonistic way, FOX LAKE takes this one step further to incorporate metallic elements that ooze out of the tight hardcore foundations.
Here, lyrics are lawless and abrasive. Not the most inventive compared to its peers, but you realise early on it’s more about intent than what is actually said. Peppered through the album, in tracks like Real Fast, sampled clips of vintage recordings also stir up the metalcore pot, but it doesn’t add anything to the dish. At this stage of the game, its formulaic approach feels like it is there as a precursor to a pit pusher. Halftime, FOX LAKE’s interlude, halfway through the album, is very much needed to keep the pace through the record. Either used as a breathing space or to check the location of your vital organs, its jazz-infused roots swell and dazzle. Leading into Pure Adrenaline, the tracks lighter approach proves it as one of the best off the record.
There is a more organic approach to the second half of the record that pays off. Bouncy and not too constricting, there’s a careless ease that runs through tracks like Headshot. A stellar repertoire of supporting bands gives the album variation and style. SILENT PLANET give purpose to the abrasive lyrics, in a metalcore context, it seems like they don’t have anything to prove. AVOID, EYES OF SALT and MUGSHOT also make big waves in this album, but with a record hellbent on smushing genres together, a fusion of styles would have made this record have a razor sharp edge.
FOX LAKE’s sound in New Wave Heat is colossal. Huge even, with the capability to part the waters and turn a room into a cyclone. No doubt this will be a defining album for the band, and the tracks hold up tremendously well on their own. If the album takes off, we could see the same trajectory as THROWN did with Excessive Guilt. However, in an album, they lack the gut punches that really give the impact and because the record already has so much oomph, at times this can get exhausting. The energy is fantastic, in-your-face and damaging. You just need to build up the stamina to last the entire half hour.
Rating: 7/10
New Wave Heat is out now via MNRK Heavy.
Like FOX LAKE on Facebook.