Reviews list for Code Orange - Forever (2017)

Hardcore is not an easy genre to describe significantly when the identity and impact is limited. That's where Code Orange come in to shake things up without the need to compromise! They can bravely let out their opinion in the metalcore realms, including avoiding the "obnoxiously-behaving" metalcore/deathcore scene of bands like Asking Alexandria (whom I also like), along with fully showing their move into the more open adulthood by removing "Kids" from their band name. After releasing their first two albums via Deathwish Records, they switched to the more well-known Roadrunner, with a brand-new colliding force on the way in the album Forever!

You can certainly consider Forever a hardcore/metalcore record with all that brutal intensity and passionate aggression that mark their usual conventions. However, they accentuate beyond those conventions for a different diverse thrill ride. If you think the first listen is fun, you certainly find joy when listening further. You'll never get tired of highly numerous twists and turns in this metalcore mayhem.

The title track starts that spectacular gauntlet, opening with a furious fistful of riffing. You can't ignore all that confidence, especially when the declaration of "CODE ORANGE IS FOREVER!!!" and the brutal breakdown that follows. "Kill the Creator" continues that savage frantic sound, with a half-minute of stomping groove and a 6-second industrial noise interruption that shows how experimental the band can be. Abrupt while not too random to make sure you don't expect the unexpected. The breakdowns and riffs get juggled through with energy and power within the weight. "Real" opens in the horror of Nine Inch Nails-like riffing, later leading to another pre-moshing cry of "THIS IS REAL NOW, MOTHERF***ER!" The closest surprise here is "Bleeding in the Blur", sounding like a potential radio single while still being a dark rulebreaker.

The electronic-esque "The Mud" is aptly titled in the dirty heaviness. There's more that heavy weight in "The New Reality". The riffing in "Spy" swings hard, especially the nu metal-ish intro. There's a sweet mix in "Ugly" of 90s Alice in Chains-like alt-rock/metal, European death metal, and goth-pop, all colliding together, with help from Reba Meyers and her clean vocal arsenal.

"No One is Untouchable" has the pure violence to make sure no one forgets their brutal roots. Through further downward spiraling territory, "Hurt Goes On" is full-on industrial dance with a slight bit of the hardcore. Then "dream2" ends things on a soft eerie note, but rather abruptly. That part doesn't matter though...

So this record is quite short at only 35 minutes. Most albums made this short and even shorter are from grindcore bands like Nails. However, unlike those bands who tear things apart in a frenzy, Code Orange makes sure everything transcends smoothly, the way tech-death band Martyr would; abstract while causing pain only to the weak. You can very well turn into a werewolf and the next thing you remember would be how sharp your teeth were and how much blood from others has covered your body. Code Orange has pleased metalheads with a simplistic yet stylistic sound that would steamroll right through in Forever. Code Orange is FOREVER!

Favorites: "Forever", "Real", "Bleeding in the Blur", "The New Reality", "Ugly", "No One is Untouchable"