Music lovers in 2018 have a bevy of new and exciting records spanning across all genres, but there’s one record that deserves a bit more attention than it has gotten this year: the fourth full-length effort from Los Angeles hardcore band Twitching Tongues, Gaining Purpose Through Passionate Hatred.
Twitching Tongues is a band that has been drawing attention in the hardcore scene since their 2013 release In Love There Is No Law, touring endlessly and making their name known by putting on one of the best hardcore sets in the scene right now. They’re a supergroup of sorts, formed by brothers Colin and Taylor Young who perform vocals and guitars respectively. Taylor is also the drummer for Nails, while Colin plays guitar for indie wrestler Brody King’s band, God’s Hate. Twitching Tongues also has garnered criticism, both positive and negative, for their ability to merge hardcore with doom and thrash metal elements, and colliding those extreme styles with melody. The result is a riff-driven, operatic-laced, “thrashtastic” spectacle of hardcore music.
Gaining Purpose Through Passionate Hatred kicks off with a beautiful acoustic section on “AWOL (State of the Union)” before dive bombing into a small multi-layered hardcore epic, filled with gloomy choruses and relentless double-kicks. Colin’s vocals, clearly influenced by 90’s goth metal band Type O Negative and its late singer Peter Steele, have improved from the band’s 2015 hiccup, Disharmony. His voice sounds more direct and clear than the warbled, incoherent garbage on the majority of Disharmony.
“AWOL (State of the Union)” jumps into lead single “Harakiri”, which channels elements of Slayer and CKY, creating a groovy but thrashy hardcore anthem. There’s a small solo on the track, which is rare to see from the breakdown-centric hardcore genre, yet it brings depth to the track. “Harakiri” has a grisly music video to accompany it, reflecting the lyrical themes of the song, which is the political erosion of the country and the encouragement of the self-destruction of the current political system. Uncle Sam is displayed committing seppuku with the aid of Colin, who sports a shiny katana in the video. The scene is very Kill Bill-esque and would make Tarantino proud with its excessive display of blood and gore.
“Gaining Purpose” is in the running for best track on the record, bringing a catchy chorus to the melodic, riff-driven chaos Twitching Tongues is known for. The initial verses serve as a build-up to the intense solo and sequential breakdown, which violently hits listeners in the skulls with Taylor and Martin’s punchy riffs and pounding drums.
The most polarizing cut on Gaining Purpose Through Passionate Hatred is the somber piano ballad “Long Gone.” The song features the Young brothers’ mother play a beautiful piano section while Colin delivers his most impressive vocal performance on the record, turning into a gothic Freddie Mercury before the crescendo of strings and guitars bring the track to its climax.
“The Sound of Pain” slams listeners back into the atmosphere with the riffs of Taylor and Martin. This track shows the band at its most aggressive, channeling a cataclysmic tornado of breakdowns and growls, turning the band into an unstoppable inferno. There’s a callback to “World War V” from In Love There Is No Law during the track’s bridge, which has Colin give a spoken word bit that comes off as more of a rally cry to “World War V” — a term used to describe the destructive pits during the song’s brutal breakdown. “The Sound of Pain” follows this formula, as Colin tells listeners that “Sooner or Later, we all must hear the sound of pain.”
Gaining Purpose Through Passionate Hatred is the product of a band that has overcome adversity. Going through a few lineup changes and having their previous record destroyed by critics, the band had a chip on its shoulder to reach the potential they showed in In Love There Is No Law. This record shows that the band can handle the criticism given to them for their polarizing style. It gives them hatred, but it also gives them purpose. This purpose is being shown off in their live performances too, as their most recent tour with Code Orange and Vein has been regarded as one of their best stretches in years. The hardcore genre is going through a renaissance right now, and Twitching Tongues is helping to lead the way with their genre smashing style. Gaining Purpose Through Passionate Hatred shows the full scope of that style, and deserves more credit for its mark on heavy music.
Diamond Growney is a freshman studying integrated media at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Do you agree? Tell Diamond by tweeting him at @growney_diamond.
