“Is it too much to ask for a semblance of anything real and intact? / An ounce of humanity? / I’m losing my grip on things / Or Is it too much to ask?,” Initiate vocalist Chrystal Pak wonders, deafening so, on “Too Much”. It’s the California melodic hardcore band’s first new music since breaking ground on their excellent listmaking debut, Cerebral Circus, and where these pages described that album’s sound to that of a phoenix consumed by its own power, the new form which the band reached then is now soaring as a glorious conflagration here. Existential inquiries, deep dives into grief, and screams for empathy fuel this fire, rendering grandeur in the pursuit of purpose which she and guitarists Riley and Jack McTomney alongside an assist from Militarie Gun’s Waylon Trim on drums embrace with every breath of their being. All of this is leading to a new journey, and it sounds epic in the way Initiate continue to combust molten melodic hardcore with more than enough spark of epiphanies, creating a blazing display out of emotional extremism pushing the self to consider something greater than its own image.

Directed by: John L’Etoile and Sandy Peña

Initiate’s “Too Much” single is available now.