SPITE // EMMURE

When harnessed in proper fashion, anger unites. 

Spite attract outsiders together by way of a hypnotic, heavy vengeance bordering on thrash intricacy and deathcore intimacy. As a result, the Northern California quartet—Darius Tehrani [vocals], Lucas Garirrigues [guitar], Alex Tehrani [guitar], Ben Bamford [bass], and Cody Fuentes [drums]—engender a level of devout fandom that can only be categorized in canonical terms…“‘Spite Cult’ is how we refer to the union between ourselves and the fans,” says Darius. “It’s the opposition, the outcasts, and the rejects of society coming together. They’re embracing who they are and not just doing what they’re told. We’re letting people know it’s okay to be angry. We’ve never had a filter on our lyrics. There’s no limit on what we might say or how deep the music will go.”

The group’s willingness to push the envelope quietly transformed them into one of modern heavy music’s most intense forces. Following 2016’s self-titled Spite, the musicians registered shockwaves on the Richter Scale with Nothing is Beautiful a year later. Tallying over 5 million-plus cumulative on-demand streams, “Kill or Be Killed” notably racked up over 1 million Spotify streams and just shy of 1 million YouTube views. The band destroyed stages coast-to-coast alongside everyone from Attila and Oceano to Carnifex, Whitechapel, and Winds of Plague. Along the way, four-piece prepared their most incisive statement to date in the form of their third full-length, Root of All Evil [Stay Sick Recordings]. This time around, they turned the anger outward, railing against everything. “Nothing is Beautiful stemmed from depression and self-hatred,” he explains. “We’ve shifted focus. Root of All Evil is based on outward anger towards everyone else rather than at oneself. We’re embracing the dark side.”

Spite introduce this vitriolic assault with the high-speed and hard-hitting “Reign In Hell.” Tapping into a metallic side, the single ignites a fire that never stops burning, slipping from blast beats and breakdowns towards a head-spinning hook and provocative theme. Meanwhile, the title track sums up the mission statement. “‘The Root of All Evil’ is about embracing the darkness that swells in your core and going through with your sinister urges,” he goes on, “No help to seek, no God above, no happy ending. While others attempt to pick up the pieces of a failing society, you thrive in the negativity, the hatred, and the violence.” In the end, Spite gives their cult a soundtrack with Root of All Evil.

People talk about possessing a drive to succeed. But how badly do most of them really want it? EMMURE captures the sound and spirit of what it’s like to fight for one’s vision. There’s no feigned sophistication, no phoned-in sloganeering, and no calculated drama with EMMURE. This is barebones, punishing, death metal-flavored metallic hardcore, driven by the catchiest rhythmic bounce of Active Rock radio’s golden age of nu-metal. Frankie Palmeri has no patience left for gossip, rumors, or half-truths. It really doesn’t matter what gets said about the band the frontman has led through good times and bad, because the music of EMMURE presents a swift, decisive answer. Since 2003, the Queens, New York native has watched EMMURE grow from an idea into an international institution. EMMURE carries the torch for heavy music and the hardcore scene’s most celebrated abrasive edge, with a truth-telling bravado and an outsider’s angry disdain for bullshit. Simply put, the band blasts upon all scene fakery with full-on fury. »Look At Yourself« represents a coming of age for EMMURE, a new chapter in an aggressive autobiography that stretches back to the band’s very first album, released when Palmeri was barely out of his teens. It’s infused with a brutal self-examination and observation, balancing hate, bile and perseverance, with the tempered experience of a life spent in pursuit of self-reliance and respect, from within and without. It’s expressed in a crushing cacophony of riffs that never fail to super-serve the forward-motion groove of EMMURE.