Hi, everyone. Hardthony Coretano here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this second demo EP from xWeaponx.

xWeaponx is an up and coming metalcore outfit from Louisville, Kentucky. They're a band with straight edge leanings, and even though they are in mostly the beginning stages of their discography, they have a pretty seasoned lineup of musicians on their roster with connections to bands like Greyhaven and Harm's Way, as well as Knocked Loose, maybe the most critically acclaimed band in the scene at the moment.

If you haven't noticed, metalcore is having a bit of a moment culturally right now at this time, which is exciting to see because it is a scene that I vividly remember growing up alongside. New England was a hotbed for metalcore bands and fans in the 90s and 2000s. I had people in my friend group who messed heavily with artists such as Hatebreed. I was partial to Earth Crisis myself, and groups such as Converge are obviously East Coast metalcore legends.

The genre is really thriving right now with a new generation of bands that are revitalizing the scene at all levels. You have meat and potatoes breakdown brutalists, who are keeping the underground alive, putting on lots of crazy shows. I'm thinking of people like Pain of Truth as well as Jesus Piece. You have seen veterans who are still coming out with records after all of these years, who new audiences are finding and enjoying. You also have bands like Knocked Loose, who I mentioned earlier, who are getting the industry acclaim and fame, even a Grammy nomination recently, that other artists in this field aren't usually afforded.

You have bands out there to this day who are still experimenting with this sound, adding in elements of math rock and alternative rock and shoegaze, electronics occasionally, and anything they can really get their hands on, be it Callous Daoboys or loathe. And on top of all of that, as was mentioned in a recent interview that I had with Bryan Garris of Knocked Loose, a really interesting cultural entry point for the genre recently for a lot of young fans has actually been TikTok, which honestly makes total sense as metalcore music makes for great short form.

I mean, as a band, how good your breakdown is is like the perfect elevator pitch. You're essentially exposing new listeners to the heaviest, hardest, most exciting part of the song off the bat, and then pair that with a video of a crazy pit or a crowd going crazy to the song, and I'm sure it becomes even more enticing. Even the user review generated website, Rate Your Music, alleges in its own metrics that metalcore right now is seeing an amount of releases every year that is comparable to the genre's commercial heyday over a decade ago. There's really more metalcore to talk about now than there has been in years. And some of it is actually really good.

Which brings me to this new xWeaponx demo, which is just five tracks and nine minutes of run time, but within that span of time, it hits fucking hard. The first track alone brings some thrilling gang vocals, a great guitar and bass mix, the double bass drums are killer.

This EP immediately showcases a sound that makes it clear this band is in touch with metalcore's roots and has no desire whatsoever to figure out ways to make this sound and make this style widely palatable to maybe a more casual music audience. This is metalcore for metalcore's sake, with lots of Cro-Magnon riffs, pummeling breakdown on the back end of the track, and vocals and lyrics that just filled with righteous indignation.

That's something that also comes through on the next track on my own, which features throttling riffs and drums, just a higher tempo, more speed, with even angrier lyrics about somebody who is essentially like a do-nothing loser with nothing to prove because they've been given everything in life: "I had no choice but to fight every day all of my life / You have it easy / Nothing to prove / Born in a life with a silver spoon." So on and so forth. And while, yeah, this does sound very angry and over the top, and simultaneously a track like this does speak to a blue collar consciousness that the genre once did in its own way, something that you don't often see a lot of more, I guess, is more privileged musicians addressing or even trying to make a connection to in any way for their audiences who are obviously not as well off as they may be.

Following this, we have "Everybody Breaks", which is an even more cautionary ranger about someone who has essentially ruined their own life, created their own problems, and is now expecting you to fix them, and just feeling pissed that they're making their issues your issues right after it was clearly their own behavior that was their own undoing.

Now, personally, I will say I might be maybe a bit more sympathetic in a context such as this, but the anger is relatable. Once again, the mix on this track is incredible. The performance is thrilling, hard-hitting, exciting even. Like, by every measure you could apply to it, this is some sick-ass metalcore.

Then we have some other very familiar metalcore tropes on the following track, "BNE", which features metalcore legends Earth Crisis, who I mentioned earlier. This is another track that just goes hard as hell. It's a song that is about brand new enemies, but you're still fighting the same old war. Thematically, of course, with Earth Crisis in the mix as well to bolster this point, the track has its allusions to straight-edge culture and follows through on that with a bunch of lyrics about sticking to your convictions and being true. The way that it's written and delivered, obviously, it's very blunt, it's very obvious, it's very on the nose. You could say it's lacking nuance to a fault, but you can't really deny the fact that very few bands outside of metalcore are creating music that is this top of the line, rage-filled, and doing it in such a way to where the rage is just infectious. The rage is being sold very well on these tracks, I'll say that.

I do feel like on some level, the band is very self-aware about the way they're coming off in these tracks, which is why I think they gave us this very hilarious outro, this "WeaponX Outro", where they're saying the name of the band and giving us a statement of intent and then finishing it off with a "Fuck you." Very funny and needlessly confrontational way to end off your demo EP, which, again, it's crazy with how well these tracks are pulled together and mixed. You also have Earth Crisis on the damn thing, which – there are formal, very impressive metalcore albums that don't even have an Earth Crisis feature.

So yeah, it's funny just calling this a demo. If this is your demo, how much sicker is your shit going to get on the full-length album? But yeah, I will say as far as metalcore goes, this thing isn't reinventing the wheel or anything like that. But this is some of the most exciting stuff in this genre that I've heard in a minute, despite the fact that it's not really trying to reinvent it or anything.

And as much as I do enjoy it, some feelings that I have toward this thing are a little mixed. I am left wanting more, but simultaneously, would something that is just essentially 20 more minutes of exactly this be as exciting? Maybe not necessarily. That could feel a little one-dimensional. But if on a full-length album, the band could manage some ways to stick to their sound while also bringing maybe just a bit of versatility to keep things from getting stale by the end of the LP, that could just make for a great listen, a great experience, great album experience.

But for now, with this EP, they most definitely have the riffs and the breakdowns and the loudness and the heaviness and the aggression. They have all that down. I guess as of right now, we will just wait and see if the rest of it pans out, which is why I'm feeling a strong 7 to a light 8 on this thing.

Anthony Fantano, xWeaponx, forever.