SHOW ME THE BODY - TROUBLE THE WATER
Show Me the Body has taken the hardcore scene by storm in the past couple of years, pushing it to it’s limits and infecting the scene with their aggressive style and blood boiling sound.
The band has seen itself plastered on everyone’s feed and minds from their live sets that capture the rawness and sheer power of their music.
With this notoriety, the New York based trio has been able to encapsulate this rage and energy to follow up their 2019 release Dog Whistle and create the chaotic masterpiece that is Trouble the Water.
The album bounces between the hardcore sound that they have locked down in there discography but also includes elements of industrial and adds a bit of their signature twang into many of the tracks as well. This is immediately eminent as the opening track ‘Loose Talk’ embraces the banjo-coreness of the band before gradually repeating the riff until it gets heavier enough to stick in your mind throughout. The vocals caught between a mixture of ramblings and a rotting scream to pair with the heaviness of the track and leave it as a perfect prelude to what the rest of the album contains. The best little quirk added here was the use of the NYC subway “bing bong” that reminds you that this is truly an homage to the grit and sound of the city.
As the album progresses the heavier elements begin to grab you by the throat and keep you waiting for each drop. A track that brings this energy to the forefront is ‘We Came to Play’ that toys between different drops and has you chanting “They Don’t Belong Here” and exude the growl that vocalist Julian Cashwan Pratt frequently uses. Different influences and styles can also be heard in tracks such as ‘Boils Up’ and ‘Demeaner’ which I felt had elements of industrial thrown in to add to the grittiness of the song. With lyrics like “Fighting/fucking/dancing together” that ring throughout the song as the perfect motto to chant to. This was definitely one of the stronger parts of the album in my opinion, as the song stands out with its sheer bravado to be this catchy and this aggressive.
Other strong parts of the album are found in the latest single before release ‘WW4’ and the title track ‘Trouble the Water’. With ‘WW4’ starting as a solemn reflection, with Cashwan Pratt singing alongside a banjo playing before the guitar kicks in and melts down the build up and turns the ballad-like track into a heavy sludgy metal piece.
With the title track rounding out the end of the album, it provides a hard hitting track that trudges down and explodes at the right moment and helps the album end with a voracious bang.
The themes explored in Trouble the Water are what help bring the album into a picturesque landscape of what the trio is influenced by. The album conveys an intense energy that equally makes you want to fight, dance and be a part of the collective singing and moving with these songs.
The hints of violence and struggle also take the griminess of the sound into the next level that pushes the record and gives it the layer of intenseness that their live shows usually give off.
This is definitely an artistic triumph within the hardcore realm that I’d recommend to anyone in the scene, especially with the band popping up and making itself stand out amongst it’s peers. As we push through the current renaissance of hardcore, I know we will look back at this record as one of the more unique ones that will shape different elements within the genre in the years to come.
Alfredo Luna
★★★★☆