Issues Deliver a Breath of Fresh Air to Their Genre
WORDS BY JONATHAN RUIZ
Well it's been three long years since we’ve heard any new music from the nu-metal/metalcore breakout band Issues, in those three years the band blew up, toured the world and experienced some major lineup changes.
It’s no secret that the part of what made the band popular and charming to their audience was the dual vocalist and their chemistry on stage, as well as how their voices complimented each other, with Tyler Carter on clean vocals and Michael Bohn formerly on unclean vocals, but it seems that as of late many bands who were following this common line up have either kicked out or lost their screamers due to medical or tragic reasons (i.e. Crown The Empire, Of Mice & Men, We Came As Romans).
But that’s in the past, with the departure of Bohn it left many fans wondering what would happen to the band’s sound with the loss of such an integral member to the band, many people were spreading rumors that the band would take out the heavy elements from their third LP and replace it for a “bubble gum pop” sound similar to Carter’s solo work.
Enter Tapping Out, this song works through all the genres that the band typically likes to put into their music moving through them very fluidly with a variety of R&B, pop, prog and alternative featured in the song.
As a fan of the band since their debut I do have to admit that I was terrified what the loss of Bohn would bring to the band. I personally haven’t been able to see the band play a live show since Warped 2016 and had heard from others that the band had since had guitarist Adrian "AJ Bends" Rebollo also take on the unclean vocal duties during their live shows. It now seems that he will be the bands permanent unclean vocalist both on stage and on recorded media.
Lyrically Tapping Out highlights the struggles of trying to make things work time and time again to the point where you just want to “tap out” and give up on the friendship/ relationship, something that I have personally dealt with recently, so that really spoke to me. The song has a heavier and slower sound similar to Slow Me Down off of their previous album, Headspace (2016), with Carter dominating most of the track with his vocals fans would be inclined to think that the band has indeed decided to get rid of screaming in their music until the bridge comes along where we get the first taste of Rebollo’s screams for this new era for Issues. With the lyrics “I trusted you, if only I could see/Wishing for your love was so foolish of me” it will be easy for someone who has been fucked over by a friend or a lover to relate to this song. This song is a breath of fresh air from one of metalcore’s strongest bands and this hopefully marks the start of a new era for metalcore.
While the band has not completely denounced the rumors that their next album will take a more pop route, Carter, has mentioned that this next LP will be heavy in a different way that doesn’t necessarily have to include screams and a hardcore breakdown in order to be heavy.
The bands currently unannounced third LP is set to drop this year on Rise Records and based off of this first song, this LP, along with I Prevail’s (who Issues is currently on tour with) latest LP Trauma (2019) will bring upon a new era for the genre just like Asking Alexandria and Of Mice & Men did 10 years ago with the now classics Stand Up and Scream (2009) and Of Mice & Men (2010).