A Bud That Never Blooms

vote
8.0

• Bands:
  GORE.
• Duration: 00:19:20
• Available from: 10/24/2024
• Label:

• Spinfarm

In Chino Moreno's vast and contaminated artistic progeny, which ranges from the promising Loathe disciples to the mysterious Sleep Token, there is now also room for Gore. (whose moniker recalls an album by Deftones, although it is probably just a coincidence), a Texan trio born in 20243 around the figure of singer Haley Roughton and completed by guitarist Alex Reyes and bassist Devin Birchfield.
Listening to “Pray”, the opening track of the debut EP released on Spinefarm just one year after the band's formation, it is quite easy to place them in the wake of Spiritbox: the nu/metalcore sound with modern progressive hues can be compared to the band Canadian and the aforementioned frontwoman has a notable vocal range, but the real surprise comes with the subsequent “Doomsday”, a song in which the influences of the best chart-topping pop (for example, Florence & The Machine) blend with the rhythmic glimpses typical of the Sacramento band mentioned at the beginning.
Strength and vulnerability are Roughton's stylistic signature, who is not afraid to lay herself emotionally bare in the eulogy of her desire for motherhood (“Babylon”); in the same way the contamination of nu-core with dream pop and shoegaze, although not new in an absolute sense, makes two songs like “Angels Like You” and “Heaven Is Above Me” even more fascinating, whose angelic chorus church adds a spiritual touch that ties in well with the lyrics.
Less than twenty minutes is short for a definitive judgment but sufficient for a premonition: under the sign of lilac another star of certain size is budding.