Your Demise nailing it
Your Demise split opinions a perfect 50/50 last year upon the release of third album The Golden Age, a record that found an eclectic middle ground between their heavy hardcore roots and more pop-punk new pastures, and to say both sides were passionate in their directly opposing opinions would be a major understatement. The album was therefore one of, if not the, most contested records of 2012.
With Cold Chillin' though it's going to be hard for anyone to complain, sounding like a bare-knuckle fight between that album and its much-loved predecessor The Kids We Used To Be, this is four tracks of YD at their very best-bruising, unrelenting and dealing in a sense of brawn married melody that bares its teeth and has razors for hands. Think the outstanding title-track of the latter album infused with some Golden Age fun and eclecticism and you're very much on the right lines.
Opening like the unleashing of a trapped alligator with Karma, the track feels like the band giving their own take on the irrepressible bounce of Deftones' classic Around The Fur opus, Stu Paice and Daniel 'Oz' Osborne's riffs absolutely crush sounding way more angry and metallic than before while frontman Ed McCrae is on fire spitting lines like flames, his acrobatic takes on furious calls like "bitch don't kill my vibe" and "every motherfucker is a sucker just like the last cigarette you'll ever have" raining molten hot ash all over the place. The following A Song For No-One possesses a chorus that's melodic but in no way radio-friendly and all the better for it sounding like the lovechild of bone-crushing hardcore and emotion-bursting post-hardcore. While Nearly Home is a full-on assault that feels like scorpions let loose in the ear canals, McCrae's barks of "I'll do this on my own" sounding so bone-shaking and honest you believe that no other words mean more to him than the ones he's screaming in the vocal booth.
It feels like the band have channeled their extremely diverse set of influences that they've experimented with up to this point into four near-perfect tracks that don't sound like anyone else but themselves. The scarred gang-vocal refrain at the skyward climax of Just Like The End for example nods to skate-punk but it feels both totally heavy and totally YD without ever veering off into any form of worship. Addictive, ferocious and full of integrity, this is Your Demise fully stepping into their skin and completely nailing it with serious conviction and it's something mighty. It'll please fans of The Golden Age and, moreover, bring back all the fans of the The Kids We Used To Be era.
This is how you do an EP.