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Hardcore from Chicago.
Our take: Second full-length from this Chicago band who infuses their hardcore with various styles of underground metal. Coronary feels like part of hardcore’s post-Power Trip moment where it’s not uncommon to hear bands weave together influences from heavy, tough-sounding hardcore, extreme metal, and classic d-beat. This slurry comes out differently with every band, but Coronary certainly makes it work well for them. From d-beat they get the simple, driving riffs and slightly groovy, in-the-pocket rhythms that keep songs feeling light on their feet, while metal provides the flavor (a dash of thrash riffing here, a well-deployed blast beat there), and the tougher end of hardcore lends its mosh parts for occasional big climaxes. The playing and production both toe the line between clarity and grime, tight without being clinical and energetic without being sloppy. If I had to level a criticism, it’s that sometimes the infusion of metal into the sound can feel a little too deliberate, like “here’s a grind part” or “here’s a death metal part,” but, on the other hand, Coronary has full command of all these styles and it’s nice that they mix things up rather than giving us 12 versions of the same song. If you’re into the strain of modern crossover you hear on labels like Quality Control HQ and Triple-B, this is well worth a listen.