The kids are bringing back early-'00s metalcore. I didn't see this development coming, but it's been very fun to watch. There's a whole scene that's developed around Ephyra, a Connecticut-based label that only came into existence in 2022. Bands like Balmora, Since My Beloved, Azshara, and Blow Up The Outside World are fully steeped in the complicated song-structures and bone-deep guitar-crunches that Poison The Well and Prayer For Cleansing brought into the game many years ago. And then there's I Promised The World, a Texan band that seems to have beamed in directly from 2003, before any of the band members were actually born.
If you went to see Deafheaven and Harm's Way on their most recent tour -- and I hope for your sake that you did -- then you might've caught the confounding spectacle of I Promised The World opening up. The members of the Texan band are young -- the oldest of them is 21 -- but they've got the old scream-sung dichotomy down pat. Every aesthetic tenet of early-'00s post-hardcore is present in I Promised The World, right down to the haircuts and the extra-medium T-shirts. If you have any affection for that sound, it's wild to see such a young band embrace it wholeheartedly.
Singer and guitarist Caleb Molina had the idea for I Promised The World after his father died of COVID in 2020, and the band fully came together in 2023 and released their full-length debut Fear Of The Fall on Ephyra last year. Now, they've signed with Rise Records, and they'll release a self-titled EP early next year. They recorded it with Drug Church/Drain collaborator Jon Markson, and lead single "Bliss In 7 Languages" shows exactly how they get down. Below, check out that song's video, the EP's tracklists, and the band's upcoming tour dates with Koyo, another group that takes inspiration from the same historic era.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Proud"
02 "A Pure Expression"
03 "Bliss In 7 Languages"
04 "Future Worth Dying For"
05 "Emerald Waltz"
TOUR DATES:
11/08 - San Diego, CA @ House Of Blues *
11/09 - Meza, AZ @ Rosetta Room *
11/11 - San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger *
11/12 - Dallas, TX @ Dada *
11/14 - Atlanta GA @ Purgatory At The Masquerade *
11/17 - Charlotte, NC @ Amos Southend *
11/18 - Richmond, VA @ Canal Club *
11/20 - Washington, DC @ Pearl Street Warehouse *
11/21 - Somerville, MA @ The Center of Arts at Armory *
11/22 - Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church *
11/23 - New York, NY @ Racket *
- with Koyo
I Promised The World's self-titled EP is out 1/16 on Rise.
