Gouge Away have been underselling their contributions to the modern hardcore landscape for far too long — to the point, the band almost considered never making music again together after a pandemic-forced break between their 2018 breakthrough sophomore effort, Burnt Sugar, and 2024’s hostile return, Deep Sage. That said, it’s really been a huge relief to hear to hear the them embracing who they were meant to become in the present and now, because we really need bands like them.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, they aren’t fucking around on the road either, with their calendar bending big and eclectic in opening for Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, and Wednesday as well as headlining their own run alongside Ovlov (whose Theo Hartlett now counts himself a member of their own guitarmy.) They’ve just inked up with Run for Cover Records for the foreseeable future as well, meaning there’s probably a new album or EP on the way at some point this year to make sure their new found ambitious streak peaks right on time.

“Figurine” may not only be predicative of that, but speaks (er, screams…) to that internal combustion of realizing you’ve been making yourself small for the sake of appeasing others’ comfort levels. With Hartlett’s addition, the band’s noisier take on meditative post-hardcore broils within Christina Michelle’s unabashed declarations of creative expression before breaking out of the box. “I just wanna make art on the couch / Neighbors complain that we’re too loud,” she sings. “Pissing down someone’s driveway / Tiptoeing over the clocks changing shape.” Their own is a beguiling distortion between the explicitly loud and menacing in the quiet. Surely, they’re not asking for permission, but they’re not asking for forgiveness either.

Directed by: Noah Haycock

2026 Tour Dates:

Gouge Away’s “Figurine” single is available now on Run for Cover Records.