EP REVIEW: No Escape – Spaced
As we enter the final phase of 2025, one of the strongest years for hardcore music in a long time we have one of the most anticipated releases of the year. SPACED are one of the brightest sparks in the hardcore world now and if you haven’t heard of them up until this point, you are about to. Hailing from the same city as the legendary EVERY TIME I DIE means that there is plenty to live up to, and this is not something that the band take lightly and have even worked with producer Jay Zubricky who famously worked with the legendary group as part of the production team previously.
Having recently signed to the world famous label Pure Noise this year, SPACED are out to prove that they have got what it takes to hang with the big dogs of the scene and have produced their finest work to date with No Escape (spoiler).
The opener No Escape is a great example of what SPACED are all about. A hard-hitting sprint of a song that sees 80s inspired thrash riffs thrown on top of punk beats and rumbling bass. This is exactly what we have come to want and expect from the Buffalo natives, and they have understood their assignment perfectly.
The beauty of the way this band writes their music is that they grasp the fact that most hardcore/thrash fans these days have the attention span of toddlers hyped up on sugar and too much screen time. And on that note, they waste little time with extra fluff and unnecessary filler with a perfect representation of that being Cause and Effect. A song that covers more musical ground within it’s little over two-minute run time than most bands do across an entire album. With the guitar solos wailing, the gang vocals in the chorus and almost nu-metal leads in the latter stages of the song there is a little bit of something for everyone to enjoy.
If people were worried that these DIY hardcore darlings were going to ‘sell out’ and shift their style after signing to Pure Noise records, then they can relax and take their fingers off their collective gatekeeping cancel buttons. SPACED are continuing to do exactly what endeared them to the hardcore scene at large in the first place. The one-two combination of the tracks How Did it Come to this? and Pressure are delivered with the same vigour and unapologetic swagger that has served the band so well up until this point and show no signs of them turning their back on their roots. This is fun, energetic crossover hardcore, and these songs were born for the stage.
By the time you get to the closer Dog Bite the run time for the EP has barely scraped by ten minutes, but why would it need to be any longer than that when it delivers so much in that time? SPACED know exactly what they are doing and deliver their songs with all the power and efficiency of a nuclear strike. If you close your eyes and listen, you can picture the no-barrier shows to come in all their sweaty glory. A mass of crowd surfers, two-steppers and dancers destroying themselves and each other to the perfect soundtrack. Is No Escape an all-time ten out of ten classic? Probably not. But at the same time, this is what crossover should sound like in 2025. No fancy tricks in production, no bloated and overstretched run times. Just good, honest fun.
Rating: 8/10
No Escape is out now via Pure Noise Records.
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