Photo by Ryan Johnson

I’m old enough to remember how the bridge between metal, hardcore and emo burned right down to the ground after its millennial pioneers Poison the Well, From Autumn to Ashes, Thursday, and Glassjaw got pushed out of the way for whatever that misogynistic, bastardized MySpace-Hot Topic era of it became later on into the mid-2000s. The world would have been better of if things just ended there. 20 years later, thank god for five young thrashers out of Texas who — like the recent emo and screamo traditionalists in First Day Back and Febuary — have got a revival of that scene’s better days well calculated and covered.

Calling your band I Promised The World (after originally being named Sinema) comes with lofty expectations to deliver, and with “Bliss In 7 Languages”, the earliest highlight from their forthcoming eponymous EP, there’s really no notes to add. The barreling, melodic metalcore riffs with Hunter Wilson and guitarist Caleb Molina’ s full-throated growls and clean anthem vocals entwined in barbs already get the modern day translation executed with precision, but when that very emo spoken word interlude hits and bridges the listen’s faceted aggressions seamlessly anew, you can’t help but feel like their genre fluency is beyond their years.

I Promised The World’s I Promised The World will be released January 16th on Rise Records.