Code Orange Just Might Be Here Forever.
Metal bands aren’t what they used to be, and not just in a musical sense. In the old days of metal—and for that matter, punk, hardcore and any other particularly abrasive rock genre—acts were typically more adamant in vocalizing their opinions, no matter how silly and unneeded they happened to be. During an age when a general societal sensitivity has almost everyone walking on eggshells, it’s nice to come across an act that is just so unapologetic. Long gone are the days where Pittsburgh’s Code Orange Kids’ sounds were much lighter, as dropping the “kids” has shown a maturity not only in their music, but in their comfort as an entity. They’ve got quite a few kinks and defects to work out; but for a band with a “come at me, bro” attitude that’s on the books for saying they “don’t want to be touring with these bargain bin fucking deathcore bands,” Code Orange are more of a full-price act. Forever goes even further to show this.
It says a lot to have been backed by Converge’s Jacob Bannon and his label Deathwish in their early days, but it says even more for Forever to be Code Orange’s debut with touted label Roadrunner. Title track and album opener “Forever” is a brute force of string play from Reba Meyers and Eric Balderose, with an even stronger force coming from Jami Morgan’s drumming and gruff vocals. It’s with this first track, though, where we see one of Code Orange’s most replicated faults. Prior to the song’s breakdown, Morgan, Meyers and Balderose team up to barrel out, “Code Orange is forever!” a juvenile lyrical move for the band that blasted Hot Topic scenesters Asking Alexandria for doing a lot of that same thing. We see this lack of lyrical foresight yet again on “Real,” with the all too cheesy line, “this is real now, motherfucker!” overshadowing a very well executed blend of coarse electronics and biting metal.
Forever is much more than slights in Code Orange’s at times paltry take on lyrics, as it really does show they have a good grasp on harshly technical metalcore. Songs are erratically arranged, with stuttered starts, riffs that appear once and are never heard again and members that alternate carrying out vocals. They touch on everything from Nine Inch Nails-like industrialized sounds (“Hurt Goes On”) to the stoner-rock melody of “Bleeding in the Blur” or the blatant nu metal of “Ugly.” One of the album’s heaviest moments, as far as pit dwellers are concerned, comes from the breakdown in “Kill the Creator.”
With just a tinge of humility and some coaching in writing lyrics, Code Orange could very well take over the world of modern deathcore. But even with these bouts corniness, their sound is still light-years ahead of other bands on the market.
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