New Music – Up In Smoke

Homewrecker is a new find that has slowly slithered their way into the darkened heart. They hit the pinching nerve of hardcore aggression that blends both the ambient with the new and destructive. Their newest assault, Hell is Here Nowmoves mountains through the power, but refines on hardcore for being a devastating milestone.

From the name alone, the sense of persisting anger lingers along as a transitional piece. The band takes form from the industrial ashes of Ohio, rebuilding upon the ages of old with a newer, more headstrong approach. They open with “Burden of Self” which has various artists tapping in with Homewrecker to form this sturdy backbone of instrumental and vocal combinations. Matt Barnum performs on the guitar and vocals, along side is Carson Ward who attacks equally with Barnum. The bass and percussion section is made by Erza Cook and Matt Izzi; who are constantly leading a charge of their own through deafening walls of sound.

Apparent on “Burden of Self”, the vocals take these ugly twists and contorts to fit a similar lyrical style of Death, but adapting to a modern age. With reverberation and a deeper growl, Homewrecker acts as a monument in the uncontainable. The anger, the frustration, and the true depth of sound is what makes Hell is Here Nowbecome an instant, movement-inducing record. There is no time to grab footing as Homewrecker shifts from breakdowns, tempo-changes, and entire methods within seconds.

“One With Torment” displays this almost effortlessly with the different key changes, tempo shifts, and an emphasis on each instrument in multiple lights. On one aspect, the guitars are shrilling and working to hit these notes that are so out of range that they feel like glitches in the recording. In another, the percussion moves the band into a breakdown with a one-two-four-stamp that combines with the lyrics to explain, “I’ve become one with torment, all-I-did-was-hate”.

Moving forward with “Fade To Oblivion”, there is an acoustic interlude that transitions Homewrecker into a much slower sense of approach. Surprisingly, they then slam right back into that off-putting, more-standoffish sense that makes them so lovable in the first place. With the hardcore influence, Homewrecker becomes a true force of unbelievable nature that reflects well into the styles of raging instrumentation that has a cascade of rampant emotional front lines. Through producer Andy Nelson who previously worked on The Teen Idles, there is a sense of punk aesthetic attached to the wild ferocity of Hell is Here Now.

Shown through the one-two-step percussion, or the real captured and bottled sense of auditory punishment, Homewrecker makes a monumental stride in hardcore. It is straight to the punch and without much experimentation, but still one of the more valid releases of their career.

Listen To Hell Is Here Now!!! – BandCamp/Spotify/Amazon/iTunes