Metalcore is under going an identity revolution, and Currents are helping with it’s long needed transformation with their new album ‘The Place I Feel Safest‘.

[tracklist]
01. Apnea
02. Tremor
03. Night Terrors
04. Delusions
05. Withered
06. Dreamer
07. Forget Me
08. The Place I Feel Safest
09. Silence
10. Best Memory
11. Another Life
12. I’m Not Waiting
13. Shattered
[/tracklist]

[details]
[record_label]SharpTone Records[/record_label]
[release_date]16th June 2017[/release_date]
[/details]

Metalcore is a genre that completely lost it’s lustre as it’s long time fans grew up, and grew out of the over-the-top angst and monotone breakdowns that came with it. Many bands have tried to keep the flame burning in recent years, but one would find it harder to relate to the lyrics given the genre has struggled to find new fans, and musically it is just boring. Like anything losing traction, changes are needed to ensure survival.

Over the past year or so things have indeed been changing for the genre. Bands want to continue to capture that angst that has been the staple of the genre, while adding some creative changes to make the music interesting again. This change has seem to come in the form of an 8-string guitar, and the growing popularity of djent. Fuse all that together and what have you got? A fresh outlook on metalcore, and Currents debut album ‘The Place I Feel Safest‘ popularises the new genre identity.

The album is uncomfortably good. The only way to explain it’s sound is through an industrial medium – imagine you were piloting some colossal piece of factory equipment colossal monument, and you completely lost control due to a electronic malfunction, scaring the shit out of everyone while you struggled to maintain order with the machinery. Tracks like ‘Tremor‘ and ‘Withered‘ present this odd atmosphere perfectly, and it’s something you have to listen to understand what I mean.

‘The Place I Feel Safest‘ is by no means a legendary album, but it’s one that perfectly embodies the musical transition metalcore is going through at the moment – breakdowns are deeper, riffs are erratic, leads dive up and down before spiralling out of control, but it’s still full of adrenaline from start to finish. Currents‘ namesake suggest the band exist to drag you out of your comfort zone, yet the album title echoes familiar rhetoric. It’s worth listening to out of interest, or at very least for a full-on run of energy.

[verdict]Yes[/verdict]
[why]Metalcore is finally moving away from stale stereotypes into something more musically creative, and ‘The Place I Feel Safest’ is an embodiment of the fresh sound.[/why]