EP REVIEW: Darkness Is Waiting – Love Is Red

There are a lot of bands in the hardcore/metalcore landscape today whose love for the genre’s early 00s heyday is no secret. Many are behind some of the scene’s best offerings of recent years. LOVE IS RED are a bit different though. They were actually there. The then five-piece formed in 2000, rubbing shoulders with the likes of HATEBREED, UNDEROATH and more in their short-lived career. A sole full-length arrived in 2004, with the band calling it a day just a year later. Now, they return with their first release in 17 years, a five track EP entitled Darkness Is Waiting. How will these melodic hardcore veterans get on in today’s vibrant and crowded scene?

The answer is pretty well. It seems the band have lost none of their fiery passion in the years since we last heard from them. Instead, this EP, which flows continuously from one track to the next, makes for a consistently high-energy and ferocious listen. Anyone fond of the scene LOVE IS RED came up in, and particularly of bands like SHAI HULUD and THE HOPE CONSPIRACY, should be more than happy with this. It ticks all those classic boxes, delivering on aggro and emotion in equal measure. Much like the band’s earlier work, there’s also a solid level of melody to proceedings, particularly from the guitars.

While many of today’s so-called ‘revivalcore’ bands tend to opt for a more modern crisp production, for this record LOVE IS RED seem to favour an old-school rawness. That doesn’t stop it hitting hard though. In fact, this EP packs a hefty punch, with chugging riffs and crushing breakdowns on every track. Its raging opener sets the scene well, building in intensity before kicking into a real neck snapper of a riff. Four tracks follow in a similar vein, with the band refusing to take their foot off the pedal for a single second.

One of the strongest features of Darkness Is Waiting is its lyrical content. LOVE IS RED definitely seem to come from the HATEBREED school of thought of acknowledging their struggles and facing them with a fierce emotional defiance. It’s often quite motivational – the kind of thing you’d want to stick on for a particularly tough gym session. On second track Keep Moving for example, vocalist Hunter Weeks exhorts listeners to “Keep moving on and on/Keep struggling on and on/Keep fucking fighting on and on.” Elsewhere, on third track A Different Path, triumphant “woahs” back Weeks‘ proud declaration of “We walk a different path.” Even on the perhaps more defeatist So Long there’s still a steely determination which should leave listeners feeling pretty fired up.

Overall, it’s safe to say that Darkness Is Waiting marks a triumphant return for LOVE IS RED. It’s hard to imagine many were expecting the band to reinvent the wheel, and they don’t. Nevertheless, this EP makes for a deeply enjoyable and nostalgia-tinged 14 minutes which hopefully won’t be the last we hear from this reunited and reinvigorated hardcore crew.

Rating: 8/10

Darkness Is Waiting is out now via self-release.

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