Youth Code : " A Skeleton Key In the Doors of Depression"

This is a collaboration with King Yosef. The question here becomes what is King Yosef offering to this. The first song suggests the bark of his coarse vocals to contrast hers , and give more of a hard core sound. This album is rougher and gritter which seems to be his contribution as well. The thicker noise sheen  makes Youth Code's drum programming sound like dense. There are sections like the more melodic moments in "Burner' where their true sound pushes through. I do like this better than the opener , which was not a shabby song but this is closer to what I want from them. I am unsure how I feel about this Yosef fellow as I do not feel like this vocals on their own merit really add much , in fact they are just your average hard core tough guy. I do think they occupy as space Sara Taylor normally fills , so this frees her up to explore more melodic musings. 

"Head Underwater" just feels like a hard core band playing around with industrial and truth be told I already have Code Orange. I really like the more groovey tone to " the World Stage:" It gets darker and more in your face. The is more hook to it and proves to me they are maturing as song writers despite the barking of Yosef. There is a broader range of dynamics employed here. The beats get more innovative in how the grooves are arranged on ".A Mother's Love" but as far as songs go pales in comparison to "Deathsafe" which is the album's best song. Taylor employs a better vocal hook at the end of this song, and comes the closest to actually singing , her cleaner vocal is more of a chant most of the time.

There is a more rock feel to to the last song "Finally Docked" you can here a touch of black metal in the buzz of what sound to be guitar in the background. T5his album does have some good moments on it, I am on the fence with that guys voice, while I think Taylor's singing has gotten better and they have written a few really great songs I would rather hear just a Youth Code album without the added influence so for that reason I am giving this one an 8.5  

 

6.2