I never thought I’d get hit by a tornado. Yet just the other day I stumbled across Newcastle hardcore band Trophy Eyes, and man do these guys know how to dial the intensity up to eleven and then some.
The guys from from Trophy Eyes will have you moshing harder than ever with their brand of intense hardcore and personal tragedy.
Okay, the tornado I’m speaking of is a metaphorical one, and it is a tempest of raw emotions that the five piece effortlessly spit out in their music. It is uncompromising and relentless yet incredibly accessible. There must be something in the water, because Australia always has a knack for producing exceptional heavy bands, and these Newcastle boys are certainly not an exception to that fact.
Their latest EP Everything Goes Away released earlier this year is a good place to get yourself acquainted with the future of Australian hardcore music. The EP deals with a lot of heavy subject material, from relationship breakdowns, loneliness in a new city, isolation and sacrifice. May 24 steamrolls it’s way through the eardrums from the get-go, the crunching guitars overwhelming the senses as if you’d been hit by a bolt of lightening. The most engaging aspect of May 24 is the lack of traditional song structure, Trophy Eyes abandoning the verse/ chorus/ bridge/ chorus structure and simply letting the song flow freely without any restraint. It is an incredibly refreshing thing to listen to, especially considering too many punk and hardcore bands tend to package their anger into neat three minute tracks that can negate from the experience. The somber reflection on this track flows freely, the pain felt here feeling quite organic.
Tracks like Bandaid are much more accessible for the casual punk and hardcore listener. Clocking in at a brisk one minute and forty five seconds the bass lines are nice and dirty, drums are thumping and the guitars soar. The vocals are harsh and confronting, which is nicely juxtaposed with the intimate lyrics of seeking to establish an independent identity. Meanwhile Cutting Teeth tells the tale of a man at the end of his rope and almost ready to turn away from the rest of the world, while Hourglass shifts gears from melancholy to redemption, the pop punk inspired chorus carrying with it the hopes of a soul desperate to make amends.
We’ve all faced testing situations like this, and Trophy Eyes have managed to translate such experiences in a suitably intense fashion. For all their rawness and screaming, Trophy Eyes manage to remain quite intimate. Don’t be surprised to find them reminiscent of the manic intensity of that glorious first Alexisonfire record, whilst maintaining poetic stylings of La Dispute.
With their debut album Mend, Move On set to drop October 31 this year, Trophy Eyes are certainly a band worth keeping an eye on.
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