CODE ORANGE - The Above

We will never be far apart

Do you have memories from the start?

Before everything fell apart

It’s getting blurrier lately

Having become one of the leading names in recent metalcore with "Forever" (2017) and "Underneath" (2020), Code Orange from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have decided to self-produce this fifth album, "The Above", while still drawing on the expertise of Steve Albini as sound engineer.

Having set aside the fiercest side of their sound, this time they throw themselves into a reinterpretation of the hybrid metal of the turn of the millennium, drawing on a pool of bands that's very varied yet still identifiable: Linkin Park and Korn; Nine Inch Nails and Slipknot; Massive Attack and Machine Head. Anyone who remembers the nu-metal and alt-metal trajectories of twenty years ago will feel right at home, amid varied vocal registers, melodies surfacing in the middle of otherwise ferocious tracks, and a constant urge to break the mould, blend styles and express their own compositional restlessness. Back then, it was about expanding horizons and pushing past stifling boundaries; now it's mostly a nostalgic tribute to an era that has, often for good reason, been forgotten: too many gratuitous contaminations, improbable compromises and banalities passed off as introspection.

The vocal duo of Eric Balderose (also on keyboards) and Reba Meyers (also on guitars) remains central, right from the opening "Never Far Apart", half industrial-metal nightmare and half melancholy melody worthy of Evanescence; it's only the start of an alternation between violence and more or less inspired choruses that recurs in "Theatre Of Cruelty", "The Mask Of Sanity Slips", "I Fly", "Circle Through" and above all in "Take Shape" (feat. Billy Corgan), where the presence of the frontman of Smashing Pumpkins makes clear the influence grunge has had on the whole album.

The dark atmosphere of tracks like "Splinter The Soul" and "Grooming My Replacement" doesn't shift the alt-nu-metal inspiration, a field of reference Code Orange use to conjure vivid contrasts and powerful explosions that, however, won't surprise seasoned listeners.

Reba Meyers leads by the hand the trip-hop streaked with industrial unease of "Mirror", while Eric Balderose stands out in the armoured post-grunge of "But A Dream…", ideal keys for unlocking the doors of mainstream rock radio. We have to wait for "A Drone Opting Out Of The Hive" to bring back the unstable, glitch-laden industrial-metalcore amalgam they experimented with in the past, which Code Orange are clearly still capable of, should they choose to be.

The album is scattered with songs that try to inject creativity into familiar compositional structures, going overboard with violence and stylistic detours but never giving up on verses and choruses, bridges and breakdowns (some spectacular and devastating, like the one in "The Game"). The trouble is that, in trying too hard, some tracks turn into a muddle, as is the case with "Snapshot", first like Muse on steroids and then an operatic little tableau, or the title track, with martial timpani and distorted guitars introducing, at far too great a length, a heartfelt but banal closing chorus, good for setting a live crowd on fire.

"The Above" is, despite its alternative appearance, a nostalgic and derivative album, played by a band that seems to have decided to more decisively court a crossover, backward-looking audience.

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13/11/2023