The kids are bringing back early-’00s metalcore. I didn’t see this development coming, but it’s been very fun to watch. There’s a whole scene that’s developed around Ephyra, a Connecticut-based label that only came into existence in 2022. Bands like Balmora, Since My Beloved, Azshara, and Blow Up The Outside World are fully steeped in the complicated song-structures and bone-deep guitar-crunches that Poison The Well and Prayer For Cleansing brought into the game many years ago. And then there’s I Promised The World, a Texan band that seems to have beamed in directly from 2003, before any of the band members were actually born.