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04/18/24 | [dcraley]Review: Typecaste - Between Life
I’ve been seeing the name Typecaste everywhere over the last couple years. Big fests, little shows, up north, down south, on tour, on a demo, on an EP, you get the idea. I’m sure you’ve seen it too! I checked out their demo in 2017 and thought…”no thanks.” The songs weren’t half bad, but the whole thing sounds like shit. So in 2018 I gave them another shot when they self-released Creature Of Habit. The production was miles better and the songwriting continued to improve, but the most exciting part of that debut EP was the potential. Typecaste was clearly working towards a bigger and better version of themselves and on Between Life they’re ready to expose it!
I think I was under the impression that this type of skinny guy metallic hardcore was over with. However, the last few years have proven me very wrong and I’m an idiot for not acknowledging that hardcore goes in circles. Oh well!
Sanction, Vein, Vatican, Seeyouspacecowboy (is that really how they write their name?), etc. have all proven that hardcore kids still like to get a little spazzy and this new EP Typecaste are joining their contemporaries at the top of the heap.
"Memento Mori" opens up this EP with a rumble and pummels through nearly three minutes of tasteful metalcore. Typecaste is essentially pounding their chest and saying "this is how we are going to do this…mostly."
“Under The Wreath” closes out this EP and embodies all of my rambling up until this point. It’s heavy and melodic while incorporating clean vocals that genuinely came as a pleasant surprise on the first listen. The addition of singing could have spoiled the whole bunch of tracks, but it is done tastefully and as an accent to the music and mood without derailing the whole thing.
I know using the word metalcore is dangerous, but thanks to the aforementioned bands, the stigma of that genre tag is slowly fading away. Maybe we're back to thinking metalcore just means a combination of the heavier elements of metal and hardcore, not swoosh bangs and crab stances. Regardless, Typecaste does not seem the least bit concerned with the genre they are playing and blurs the lines between hardcore, metalcore, alt-metal, and some other genres I've probably never heard of. That mentality doesn’t seem limited to Typecaste either. Flatspot Records, a label mostly known for releasing more traditional hardcore, are proudly releasing this record. Hardcore as a whole seems to be at it’s most inclusive and a record like Between Life is a representation of that.
Gotten Out By
Dan started Getting It Out back in 2018 as a stand alone podcast. He’s been writing for music websites for over a decade and finally decided to start his own. Now living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with his wife and kids, he briefly sang for Baltimore’s Pleasant Living.
