The most satisfying aspect of Knocked Loose’s success is that it’s been achieved on their own uncompromising terms. Since bursting out of Oldham County, Kentucky in 2013 they’ve left a trail of smoking vinyl and smashed stages in their wake, and while there’s been many highlights in their career, there’s a feeling that it’s all been leading up to their third full-length You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To. Reaching new heights of intensity and brutality, this release suggests this crew are going to be around for quite awhile.
With a brief preamble to set the scene, Knocked Loose soon arrive with a wrecking ball of a riff and proceed to demolish our speakers with some of the heaviest music known to man. But, the optimum word here is ‘brief’; featuring ten songs clocking in at a cool twenty-seven minutes You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To doesn’t overstay its welcome. The impression this record gives is of a band who’re boiling their sound down into its purest distillation; there’s very little flesh on the bones here and the result is a record that takes the most direct route to what the f*ck it’s all about, which is exactly how a hardcore record should attack. Yet, don’t mistake this reductionism for genericism, nothing could be further from the truth. There’s plenty of invention on offer here, with the band scrawling their sound over every surface to deliver a full-on affair that offers little in the way of redemption. Yet, there’s plenty of light and shade with the odd “quieter” moments (check out the unsettling ‘Take Me Home’) and blasts of white noise to make the heavier sections seem…heavier.
At the end of almost every festival a nagging question surfaces as to who will be future headliners, well the answer seems to have arrived in the shape of Knocked loose. Yet, whether it’s a festival crowd kicking up dust in a huge circle pit or moshers strutting their stuff in a small club, this album will provide the perfect soundtrack. Despite its brief running time, the luxuriant music contained within means that this record will continuously reveal delights on successive spins, making cuts such as the penultimate ‘Blinding Faith’ a mainstay on many a turntable. Welcome to the future.
- You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To is release via Pure Noise Records and is available now.
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Track List:
- Thirst
- Piece By Piece
- Suffocate
- Don’t Reach For Me
- Moss Covers All
- Take Me Home
- Slaughterhouse 2
- The Calm That Keeps You Awake
- Blinding Faith
- Sit & Mourn
