The brilliant debut albums just keep coming in 2017 – this time it is brand new metalcore outfit Currents, who deliver an album that proves that this is going to be a band that we will be listening to for years to come. These newcomers out of Connecticut show with The Place I Feel Safest that they have found a way to take all the elements of classic metal and mix it with an edgy, electronic sound that firmly puts them in the metalcore genre.
From the opening track, “Apnea”, it becomes brutally clear that Currents is a band who want to go about this differently. The track hits with the full force of aggression to the point where the guitar work of Chris Wiseman and Ryan Castaldi hits like a wall of sound falling around you. Then comes the vocals of Brian Wille, who, as the album goes on, reveals himself to be a master of not only some guttural growls but some amazing clean vocals, as well.
The manic feeling of the opening track is there again in “Tremor”, while “Night Terrors” slowly introduces the listener to the electronic edge that seeps through on this album occasionally and sets this band apart from others in the metalcore genre. Also setting them apart is the fact that they can go from a track like “Delusion” – which is again just pure aggression – to tracks like “Dreamer,” “Forget Me,” and “Silence”, which take the brutality but mix it with an almost pop-like catchiness. I’m pretty sure that I never heard a metalcore band deliver tracks that stay in my head quite the way that Currents do.
At times, Currents do show a maturity that is well truly above their age. The mix of speeds on “Withered” and “Shattered” is something that typically a band experiments with 3 or 4 albums into their career. While it’s in the touching nature of lyrics like ‘the familiar darkness’ (“The Place I Feel Safest”) and ‘hard to be a father when you are always shooting up’ (“Another Life”) shows a pain that a band of this age shouldn’t even know about yet.
Currents are not only a band to watch, but they are also a band that with The Place I Feel The Safest show that they have the skills and passion that could change the whole metalcore genre over the next few years. A stunning debut by a band that are destined for great things.
