We always hear about bands making claims of having written their “heaviest” record during pre-release periods, either to reclaim their days of glory (especially if the band is older) or in order to push their boundaries in extremity. I personally think the word “heavy” is quite a vague and worn-out term that gets thrown around a lot. What kind of music does come to mind when one thinks of the word of “heavy”? Primitive Man? Conan? Meshuggah? Black Sabbath? Perhaps, the more important question is “How authentically heavy is the music?”
Knocked Loose is one of those bands in which intensity and sincerity meet. The fact that what they have become - a mainstream act that is - does not stop them from producing music that is unapologetically heavy, no compromises, no beating around the bush, they deliver the chunks to the listener straight from the underground. I won’t even try to get into the dull task of describing this album track by track which is a flurrying tornado of kicks and punches that is two minutes short of half an hour- it would be nothing but disharmonious to the spirit of the LP. Instead, I can tell you that this record is a natural continuation of their previous EP - a mighty bruiser and quite lengthy one for its format - that is rich in texture; down-tuned guitars that blast colossal chuggs and breakdowns that give way to tasteful clean sections that reflect gloom, despair and uneasiness back at the listener. Producer Drew Fulk, who worked with the band on their 2023 single created a kind of sound that I can best describe as saturated in digitality, which might not be a cup of every Hardcore kid but to me it makes a lot of sense for bands like Knocked Loose who clearly have the ambition on expanding their sound by bringing highbrow artistic sensibilities with sheer brutal attitude of the underground.
Therefore, having a feature from a contemporary Pop artist like Poppy doesn’t seem like an unconventional choice for the band as one can easily tell even during the first listen how harmonious the combination is on track “Suffocate”. It is safe to say that I could easily enjoy a whole record by the two written together, just like the collaboration that was done between Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas for Mariner. As far as the sprinkle of electronics go, honestly there wasn’t a moment where they glow as a separate unit from the rest of the instrumentation because the transitions are so seamlessly done, the record as a whole includes all the spiritual components of an aggressive Industrial album.
In comparison to their previous record, there is a clear difference in runtime and this surely enhances the potency of what the band wants to say. According to the pre-release, the band has stated that they’ve written 40 songs across the span of four years and got down to ten songs for the record and really tried to capture perfection. While this album might be their perfect one for now, I have no doubt that the future is any less bright for Knocked Loose. In the post-Covid world, where every movie’s chance of getting Oscars weighed by whether its three hours or not, where every painting’s ambition is measured by its scale, where quantity equals quality, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To is a thick middle finger to the zeitgeist with just how much raw emotion is packed within its concise size.
