After indulging in creative sonic tangents on their last EP, Knocked Loose leans on that aspect even more on their newest record. ‘You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To’ is the band’s most brief, yet most dynamic project to date, carrying tuneful and crushing melodic breakdowns within creative sonic experimentation.
After weathering through the presence of grief that has characterized their past few releases, Knocked Loose is throwing themselves back into a ruffled environment, pulling themselves together and bulldozing through that thorny pain. Since 2014, Knocked Loose has been releasing solid enough projects within the Metalcore fray through releases such as ‘Pop Culture EP’ and ‘Laugh Tracks’ which garnered enough eyes to the band, yet started to delve into fascinating albeit stilted exploration on ‘A Different Shade of Blue’ where the band went diving deep into melancholic grief that doesn’t punch through due to its padded length. Since then, they have put out ‘A Tear in the Fabric of Life’ where Knocked Loose is evolving in both sound and writing as their pummeling breakdowns are getting more dynamic to boot, something that the band will continue to extend further with their newest album, ‘You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To’.
Just running under 27 minutes, the band unleashes what they have been wheeling around on that 2021 EP and doubles down on it, experimenting with the inclusion of melodic layers and transitions that allow the flow of the album to be spectacular alongside some notable factors that despite the album being Knocked Loose’s shortest, it is definitely one of their hammering and palpable projects to date. From the production by Drew Fulk gives a lot of the instrumental textures the bulk they need while also allowing the overall atmosphere to be haunting, ballistic, and crushing as the grooves are heard in the forefront, with the richness of Bryan Garris’ vocal tone fully captured as his nasal delivery cuts through sharply. But of course, the compositions that the band created get the most shine here, where there is enough variance with the dynamic switches that allow the grooves and breakdowns to be absolutely filthy, clearly showing that there is a sense of creative thought on experimentation in the melodic verve, resulting in a lot of cuts to punch through. The sneering guitars clobbering through on ‘Don’t Reach For Me’ with the sharp transitions allow the breakdown to gnash potently, the cluttering percussions on ‘The Calm That Keeps You Awake’ adds textural and melodic accompaniment to the rapture mood of the song, the various vocal tones that come up on ‘Blinding Faith’ adds a dynamic snap within the rumbling grooves, the blurry guitar passages that coast through the rapid drum patterns on the almost 5-minute length of ‘Sit & Mourn’, and the collaborations with Chris Motionless and Poppy on their respective tracks ‘Slaughterhouse 2’ and ‘Suffocate’ are disgustingly striking, with the former song’s heart pounding melodic swerves as Chris Motionless’ ravaging performance goes back and forth with Bryan Garris’ vocals extremely well and the latter song bringing the most explosive atmosphere to date, with Poppy bringing her most punishing performance to date as her wails carry a volatile tone that will shake the heavens apart, combined with the reggaeton breakdown that surprisingly works well as the production makes that rhythm sound ragged in the best way possible.
With the fractured scale, it does pull together within the writing, expanding more within that feeling of anguish and sorrow. It’s an arc where the protagonist tries to reclaim their urge to live and pull them back together from the traumatic events they have experienced, using anger as their means to rebel and move onwards. Yet, even with the protagonist’s urge to live shown through their wrath being thrown at individuals and institutions, at some point, they realize that they cannot exactly escape from that darker cage. Mostly because, with the presence of time slipping through them, so does that sense of disintegration and numbness as the protagonist soon accepts that dour viewpoint within themselves, letting the suffering pain pierce through them as long as they live, and eventually return to them dealing with the grief that they’ll have to get over with one day.
Punishing at every turn is the name of the game for this album, yet there are parts of the project that could’ve been pushed further. Mainly, it’s the experimentation that the band took. Credits to the band, they managed to pull enough ferocious melodies where the creative flow on how to make them durable and intriguing is definitely there, especially given some of the breakdowns and instrumental passages that show inklings of pushing their sound even further, the problem is that they don’t exactly go all the way there, leaving some songs like ear-piercing ‘Take Me Home’ feel like it could have been extended further. With that, it leaves the album to feel like it could have more of those moments, especially when the band manages to pull off that experimental risk on ‘Suffocate’ where the reggaeton rhythm is a delightful surprise that managed to click itself terrifically within the metalcore mold the band is operating on.
It might be short and a bit lacking in experimental curiosities that can pull the album to unique heights, ‘You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To’ is Knocked Loose at their most focused, riveting, and creative. Taking what they have been doing with their sound and then taking it to compositional and textural nooks and crannies that the band manages to deliver with a precise focus on melodic grooves and a creative eye for implementing more hooks, transitions, and dynamics, paired with Drew Fulk’s impressive production that gives every instrument their fullest range of sound and the writing carrying refinement on its arc, the band is on a different tier with this record. The presence of severely negative thoughts might pull us into a breakdown, one that we can use to direct ourselves to a path that leads us away from that bleak space.
Favorite Tracks: ‘Suffocate (feat. Poppy)’, ‘Don’t Reach For Me’, ‘Slaughterhouse 2 (feat. Chris Motionless)’, ‘The Calm That Keeps You Away’, ‘Blinding Faith’, ‘Sit & Mourn’
Least Favorite Track: ‘Thirst’