Review Summary: You're not hardcore unless you live hardcore
It's hard to imagine this is the same duo we heard on "Somewhere City", that upbeat, emo-pop-y sound that brought them to the fore. But it was always there, sonically you can hear the roots of this EP on "GAMI GANG" tracks like "Neutrogena Spektor" and "Kno U". This edge on "DEPART" speaks to a lot of the anger that has lied in Ryland Heagy's lyrics from the beginning (but esp on last year's album). Like "You Won't." is a song about someone hated, "Noah Fence" has him yelling at Jehova's Witnesses at the door. In a way, this EP is just the rage made into its most direct expression within musical sound.
Because make no mistake, this is a good color on Origami Angel. And this is a 3-track "EP" that's only 4 minutes long, could be that they don't really want to do an album of hardcore/mathcore/metalcore/whatever-core-you-want-to-call-it, and so we have this for the tracks that maybe don't "mesh" with what they're going for. But it's just as possible OA wants to go harder, and if they do, this is a tantalizing preview of what that could sound like. Timeless hardcore riffs, Heagy screaming at the top of his lungs, and lyrics that are simultaneously OA's distinct style but would be just at home on an album by Converge or Mastodon (If those guys had that kinda nasal emo-y voice like Heagy does, it's distinct!). These are songs for the pit, "FAWN" is a great cut from this EP, it just needs to be about twice as long as it is. Maybe "FOE" is a little ham-fisted: "GIVE ME A REASON TO FEEL ANYTHING EXCEPT HATE", but hey, that's the genre. If you didn't want songs about anger, you should've stayed on the first album.
This is a surprise, but it's safe to say a lot of us want to hear more of this. Is Origami Angel the Converge of Gen Z? It's too early to say, but do they have the creative capacity, the musical depth to pull it off? There should be no doubt, but hopefully the softer, goofier side we all have come to know is still around in some form. We should never forget that, no matter how angry, how violent, how trve cvlt hardcore, music can still be a lot of fun, few get this on the level of bands like OA.
