New year, new me? Well at least not musically, because I still love most things hardcore, hence I picked the new Polar record Everywhere, Everything as my first review of 2023. The record is already out via Arising Empire and, spoiler alert, you should definitely go and give it a listen.
Polar are one of those bands I’ve seen live a couple of times, but never really connected with and then forgot about (sorry guys). Fortunately the green streaming platform recommended their new album to me a few days ago and I thought to myself “eh, why not?”, so I gave it a listen and was pretty much immediately hooked.
As a German, when I read the title of the album opener ”Winds of Change” I immediately heard someone whistling in my ear, does anyone know why? Anyway, despite the similar title, this track has nothing to do with some arachnids from Hanover. It serves as a slow start to an otherwise quite fast album.
This is already Polar’s fifth album, so they probably had to decide between doing the same thing over again or maybe spice things up a bit, fortunately they did the latter. It lacks a bit of the grittiness of their older stuff (which I’ve gone back and listened to), but it is nonetheless still Polar. Their songs live from big gang singalongs in their choruses and this element certainly came back.
The record’s title track is surprisingly tame and not very hardcore, but it fits as a beautiful showcase of their songwriting prowess and does not feel out of place at all, on an otherwise pretty heavy record. Some of the choruses reminded me somewhat of While She Sleeps, which isn’t the worst comparison a band could get drawn.
My favorite track is probably ”Rush”, as it combines all of their strengths. It can be slow, heavy and emotional all at the same time. It is really interesting how Polar made this album’s sound truly their own and one can only look forward to what they hold in store for their next one.
The shift in their sound towards something a bit smoother might disgruntle some old-school fans, but it is a good step towards carving their own niche and standing out among the hardcore crowd.
