Cyco Cyco LP
This one hits fast and it hits hard. CYCO drags me back to the turn of the millennium, to that in-between era after ACME and ZORN blew the roof off of the concept of metalcore but before ZEROID (and later FALL OF EFRAFA) injected internal intensity and stadium crust rage into the mix. CYCO is all of those things as much as they are North American emotional hardcore. And these Germans…these modern Germans do the whole damn thing and still manage to sound like a raw assault and a ’90s California screamo record at the same time. Check “Learn to Use” and then crank “Pulse” and it’s like the past dragging you into the now. “Fiction to Come” is the choice cut, if only for the isolated bass intro and the D-beat > blast > emo sequencing, but literally every minute on this debut is compelling and engaging . Been a while since I have spent as much time with a new release as I have with this CYCO record, and I look forward to repeated listens.