With their roots in various punk and hardcore bands, California’s Youth Code bring more than a little of that “no rules” vibe to their sound. While numerous critics have tried to contain and label them, they’ve nimbly sidestepped easy categorisation with a genre-defying sound that straddles several styles simultaneously. Their latest EP, Yours, With Malice, is made very much in that image and presents five cuts that will appeal to fans of raw, heavy music and anyone who likes songs delivered with plenty of bite.
Some music is definitely not made for those quieter moments, certain music gets right in your face and immediately makes its presence felt, and that’s definitely the case with Yours, With Malice. Without warning opening blast ‘No Consequence’ seemingly appears from nowhere and gets right in the listener’s face. Like an angry wasp that’s been baking in summer heat, it buzzes around the cranium and once inside it won’t be leaving anytime soon. However, that’s not to say ‘No Consequence’ is unpleasant, far from it; the band’s unique brand of EBM/industrial/hardcore punk is fusing like protons in a nuclear reactor and the results are equally explosive. Think an amalgamation of Front Line Assembly and Godflesh, then filtered through the raw blast of Minor Threat and you’d have something approaching the ferocious velocity with which this EP is delivered.
The two beings who comprise Youth Code have been together since the group’s inception in 2012, and the chemistry they’ve nurtured over the years has certainly come to fruition here. Tracks such as ‘In Search Of Tomorrow’ are delivered with such razor sharp precision that you fear they’ll slice your eardrums. The band’s palette is surprising wide and they paint their musical canvas with bold strokes, but there’s no denying the band prefer to use darker shades and the overarching feeling of this EP is one of oppression. It places the listener within the close confines of a small metal box and then bangs viciously on the outside. It means that when final track ‘I’m Sorry’ reaches its cataclysmic conclusion, a huge void appears in its wake.
Thankfully, Youth Code are not mellowing with age, and if proof were ever needed look no further than Yours, With Malice.
- Yours, With Malice is released via Sumerian Records on 16th May 2025.
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Track List:
1. No Consequence
2. Wishing Well
3. In Search Of Tomorrow
4. Make Sense
5. I’m Sorry
