The most important part of music are the memories and the community it can create, even if the music itself doesn’t go beyond the reach of your hometown. That being said, the release of the debut eponymous EP from Cora Monroe is kind of a big, wistful deal if you came of age in the Massachusetts emo-core scene throughout the early 2000s, with the band being one of the 413’s small town success stories in releasing two great efforts in 2002’s Trust EP and their 2003 debut full-length, What Could Have Been.

In some respect, that title proved to be a self-prophecy to a certain extent given that the emo wave crested soon after, but if J Mascis was rumored to have heard it in Westhampton’s Slaughterhouse Recording Studio where it came to be and thought it sounded great, then that’s a win enough. I Am Disaster also came to define the area’s DIY scene culture while holding a warm kinship across genre lines with the area’s much more brutalist hardcore and metalcore artists (many a member of the Acacia Strain, Killswitch Engage, and All That Remains either played with members of I Am Disaster in some other form, regarded them as buds, or even taught them how to play.) They would go on to open up for the likes of Boston great Piebald, be listed above My Chemical Romance on local fest lineups, and even had a pre-fame Paramore open up for them.

If you’ve never heard of them, consider this their lore. Over a decade and a half later, former band members in vocalist and guitarist Bill Toland, guitarist RD Blakeslee, and drummer Jason Roy have reunited alongside former Yucky Octopuss bassist Darren Masloski in this next chapter (and it should also be noted that original IAD bassist Matty Davis is here in visual spirit, creating the album artwork with his singular aesthetic that can be seen in galleries and murals through Colorado and the Bay Area) in what feels like no time has passed since what should have been, but also in a wiser collective vision of crafting emo, post-hardcore, and grungy alt-rock through their sonic vessel and in earnest as a labor of love — the sad kind, of course.

You can’t help but praise these elder emo millennials for showing today’s fifth wavers how to brandish influences — in this case, a worship of Sunny Day Real Estate, American Football, Thursday, Nirvana, and that certain white light bulb glow ruminating from early chapters of The Emo Diaries — while making the story your own. Toland’s voice, be it in somber ache or tearing the sky with his screams, defies the aging process, and more than anything, their approach to emo-core from their lived-and-traveled vantage point is a reminder of the lost art of loud guitar breakdowns and well calculated time-sig switch that tower a listen’s intensity.

It’s a sound so sorely missed within today’s soft-bodied shells from the scene, and while aren’t aiming to make it onto big stages like they were when they were half their age, let this be a reminder that above all, true art and community always prevail in giving you exactly what you need the most out of music if you just let it happen on its own timing.

Highlights: “Angel Dress”, “A Way Through”, “Snow Song”

Cora Monroe’s Cora Monroe is available now.

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