Photo by Gary Dunn

Band: a new day, the six-piece of vocalist Brendan Riker, guitarists David Falcon and Noah Benavidez, vocalist and bassist Steve Colina, drummer Elijah Vega, and the synthesist George Gonzales

Location: South Texas

Buzz: DAZE has become a force in taste to reckon with when it’s come to shaping the evolving sound of hardcore these last several years, but more specifically, it’s been the metalcore and screamo revival which the Connecticut-based label has really had its pulse on. We’re talking about Holder. We’re talking about Dream Fatigue. There was another band that was slated to do big things upon releasing their debut album, before they had to fuck it up for any of that even started, but these pages won’t get into that. Just know that those dark days have easily been washed away with the turn to a new day.

The south Texan metalcore band — who recently released their second extended play, Held Under an Incandescent Sky — veer more so on the outside of that sound, conjuring brooding, melodic goth cinema and electronic textures into it. Imagine what listening to the Cure would be like if Robert Smith and company got extremely heavy and into skramz, and that’s a new day. “Dahlia”, the EP’s epicentric track, exemplifies all of this. With vocalist Brenden Riker thatching barbs and clean reflections throughout, guitarists David Falcon and Noah Benavidez switch blades between axe and circular saw over an ominous air crafted in the synthscapes by George Gonzales, all while bassist Steve Colina and Elijah Vega reinforce their impact.

Throughout the entire of the Held Under an Incandescent Sky, we encounter epiphanies and apparitions in spoken word and haunted features amid its towering emotional weight. Ascending and then transcending through a shattered-wide firmament, a new day’s arrival is beautiful in their varying shades of darkness.

Sound: Early 2000s metalcore lore and the 2004 Curiosa Festival lineup colliding in the bleeding heavens.

Recommended: “This Beautiful Deception.”, “Dahlia”, and “Love :22” from their newly-released EP, Held Under an Incandescent Sky

a new day’s Held Under an Incandescent Sky is available now on DAZE.