Immerse – Energy
Release Date: 8th December 2023
Label: Adventure Cat Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Metalcore, Post-Hardcore, Pop Punk.
FFO: Holding Absence, Dream State, Dayseeker.
Review By: Ross Bowie
Immerse return with their third album and a follow-up to The Weight That Holds Me Here, which seen the band reach new heights and garner a reputation as a live act.
Immerse find themselves in that sort of half-space between metalcore and pop punk; they can have fast pace-y riffs but then also bring out the pop sensibilities when it comes time to pen a chorus. Vocalist Archie Hatifield delivers these vocal melodies time and time again across the album’s 10 tracks, although they can at times often feel lost or not in hit in the way the band might have intended.
Energy sounds like a group of friends having a good time together, and that comes across through the music, the guitar riffs are often fun and have a good sense of urgency about them, quick to move you onto the next section or riff. This is evident across the albums opening run, when the guitar gets its moment to shine it grabs that opportunity with both hands, and you can see immediately why this band having a grown buzz as a live act. I can picture a lot of these songs going off live, especially songs like Freaky and Static where you can see a room full of people losing their collective mind, as the band whips them into a frenzy. However, this lies with Energy’s biggest issue. The production.
These songs are fun and have s certain sugar rush quality to them, but the production sands off the edges and then some. Riffs don’t hit as hard as they would live and especially when the band lean more into their metalcore roots, the songs don’t have that level of bite or weight to them. Static has a tight and punchy breakdown, but it doesn’t have the weight behind it to really have much of an impact. Although it’s not just the music that suffers from this production job as, unfortunately, the vocals are its biggest victim.
I’m not sure if’s the kind of reverb that is present throughout every track, but something about the vocals seems so reserved and timid. Scared to take that hand break off and really let fly, and this applies to the entire album. There are moments when everything is going and the band all going full throttle, but the vocals are so soaked and wet that they don’t cut through and are just lost in the middle of the mix. The melodies are catchy but are not having the impact that they should, it’s easy to picture a live version of this album being a better representation of how these songs should really sound.
Immerse have written a solid collection of songs that wouldn’t of sounded out of place at the last Vans Warped Tour. There is a resurgence of this scene, especially in the UK right now, and while Immerse might not be ready to sit at the top end of that scale, they’re certainly working their way up that ladder.
(3 / 5)
