'The Way It Ends': Currents' new album is explosive, painful and a shift in the right direction
The new Currents album is just around the corner. Titled 'The Way It Ends', the band's sophomore album will be released on June 5 and follows their smartly-constructed debut, 'The Place I Feel Safest', which released in 2017.
Consisting of members Brian Wille (Vocals), Chris Wiseman (Guitar), Ryan Castaldi (Guitar), Chris Pulgarin (Bass), Matt Young (Drums), this metalcore ensemble fires on all cylinders to let their music be heard. "Heartache, physical abuse, abandonment, trauma – no dark emotion is spared examination. Currents also turn their gaze outward, offering no mercy to man-made catastrophes like climate change and animal abuse. An exploitative system that inflicts such harm upon humanity and the entire world will not be spared the wrath within this explosive, weaponized bombast," aptly describes 'The Way It Ends' in a press statement.
In the album, you get the sense that a surge of competitiveness is unleashed on the alter ego of self: between your earthly, humanistic person and the enemy you negatively superimpose on yourself when you look into the mirror, who will win? This question seems to be consistently asked as you continue to listen to the album. Viciousness and ferociousness are displayed as its weapons while lending a hand from pain as a driving factor to correct your shortcomings. Anger and pain are the visceral elements at the forefront for sure, but the new album is rather a disciplinary shove two steps forward than a step back into a prison of pity.
'It Was Never There', the LP's opening one-and-a-half minute track presents a cold reality: "The place that I feel safest. It was never there. Never there at all." You are shown a bitter crossroads, a place with no answers and a place of no hope and its callousness yields to no sweet escape. The song is a rough pill to swallow, but its stagnant existential positioning beckons an interest to continue listening with a hint of triumph in the lyrics, "But now I’m walking through my life with a clenched up fist.
Holding back the tears and feelings that I never spent."
Like a lit bomb in a room full of incendiaries, the following track 'A Flag to Wave' explodes and burns up everything in its path. With grinding guitar, a mix of ecstatic power beats and growling on the vocals, the song raises the topic of purpose in a scathing world as Willie sings "I long for something. That I can represent. A flag to wave. To find my foundation. I long for something. to carry to the end. A flag to wave. A flag to wave."
Sonically, you will notice Currents' music doesn't sink into repetitive grooves, but mix up rhythm changes at just the right moments to get you moshing and headbanging long enough to savor every bar. Additionally, album tracks like 'Kill the Ache', 'Split' and 'Origin' introduce slight electronic elements, keys and synths, that actively enhance the buff destruction that comes with the album's raw metal tones.
Apart from its kick-in-the-throat growling, for those inclined to more melodic vocals, Willie tears himself away from the screams into nerve-tingling vocal enchantments with little-to-no effort. His singing is rich, impressively high and low in range and impactful, according to its own standard. 'Monster's lists as a great example, as he sings in mid-range at the song's opening and then peeks to a high range toward the end (just before a healthily not-too-zealous guitar solo) while offering a mix of growl ranges between.
The raw emotion from Currents on the new album is evident. There is more than enough to vent out your angst, to relish in metal antheming, and to appreciate strongly crafted metalcore for those who don't want to overthink the lyrics but just enjoy some solid music. But if you need to put words to your feelings or need third-person guidance away from involuntary overthinking, 'The Way It Ends' comes highly recommended.