Stage Four

Oh wow. I didn't expect to see this here. I'm a pretty big fan of this band. I love this album but it's hard to get through because of the lyrics. I just lost my mother this year. However, the timing of getting this album is quite something: my mother in law was just announced as being cancer free (she was stage four herself) the day prior. I love this band, I love this album and while it's still a hard listen due to the subject matter at least I now have a positive association with it as well.

I've really been enjoying being exposed to a lot of post-hardcore and, metalcore on this user-generated list this year. I never would have picked this up on my own, but I totally loved it! Listened to it twice through.

I can completely understand the criticism that the music is actually pretty interesting, but the vocal delivery is as uninteresting as you could imagine. Still, i don't know what it is about it, but it completely works for me. The vocal delivery is pretty monotone in its style, but it does have passion and pain, the lyrics are intentional and certainly evoke a feel of pain and loss. Never heard of this group before, but i will definitely be exploring more of the catalog. Loved it.

Remember when this one dropped into rotation at my college station, and though my music taste was pretty atrocious freshman year I could still realize this shit rocked. Vocals like this usually strain my patience, but the ragged and thin texture works well against the shifting guitar underneath – sleek and clean until it becomes ragged on the edge at a moment's notice. Incredibly well-crafted album that feels so much longer than its 36 minute runtime (in a good way) and left me craving more, great add and a needed blast from the past.

Not heard of this before, interesting and at the same time chill and challenging.

Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Flowers and you, New Halloween, Rapture, Palm dreams

I liked this. Did not know what post-hardcore was meant to sound like. But this was a pleasant surprise

It's labelled as post-hardcore but I don't hate it. What a fuckin bonus haha. Full of monotonous Rollins-isms in the vocals, and the lyrics started to get really annoying (sorry, I just don't care if your mum died and it's very personal and blah blah blah), but someone in there has an ear for melody and the drummer is doing some interesting stuff at times. 3/5.

Pretty much hardcore? Well performed, and I appreciate they are taking on serious subject matter - for once appropriate to the genre's generally self-serious tone. Just not my thing though.

I loved the music, it reminded me of the rhythms they play in Japan, however the singer did not convince me, he is the classic performer who wants to do everything by shouting, I know that is how punk rock or metal is, but I think there should be a balance of volume that does not harm the music. 2.5 stars

Oh boy, this was visceral and so hard to listen to at times, but such a lovely, honest expression of pain and grief. Musically, it was nuanced and creative in ways that both complemented and struggled against the lyrics in interesting ways. Thanks for sharing this. Fave Songs: Flowers and You, Displacement, Rapture, Benediction, New Halloween

The sound minus the voice would make it a superb album.

Whatever happened to you I’m so sorry

Musically I could very much appreciate this, but the vocal style kind of ruins it for me.

A good hardcore album that is really becoming the new metal style that people are into. This is one the softer side of the genre shockingly but I found that a little easier to digest. Some of the metalcore and post hardcore groups are too intense for me. This band was nicely in that middle area of hardcore instrumentals and sufficient lyricism that could be understood. 6.2/10

It sounds like a modern 90s punk band

Passable emo fun. Loved it lyrically more than musically.

Soild hardcore album, just not sure if rush back to it.

Nice to see an album like this on the list. I think I saw Touché Amoré like 5 years ago, with Baroness and Deafheaven 🤟

I wanted to like this a lot more than I ended up liking it. even though it's a brisk 33 minutes it felt way longer. Possibly because I just didn't enjoy the screaming lyrics. It just did not work for me. Even a cameo from Julian Baker didn't save it. My personal rating: 2/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No

Started playing this and immediately had a bad feeling - not sure I’m up for getting screamed at for 35 minutes. But there was something a little melodious and interesting going on with the vocals, and I was catching some interesting lyrics in the first two songs. Looking at them it was clear there is a lot of pain in those lyrics. Intrigued I pulled up the Wikipedia article and learned more about what was behind those lyrics. This isn’t my genre, screaming vocals aren’t my cup of tea, but the music was good and the lyrics were a real surprise. The occasional moments of regular singing vastly appealed to me. So while I can’t say that I will listen again, it was more interesting than I thought it might be initially.

Heavy

It is a good album, but I did not like the vocals. I don't have issues with screaming, but the music has subtilities that the vocal delivery diminishes. I guess (for me) the guitars should be more distorted than the vocals. The other way around does not work. So grunting with death metal is ok, screaming with rather elegant guitar rock does not. The songs with partly "normal" vocals sound a lot more appealing (Benediction, Water Damage).

I can't take this seriously with the subject matter and the vocal style.

I realize this makes me sound 100 years old, but I just don't get all the yelling. Usually with hardcore music like this I just dismiss it as bad, but in this case the music is really good. I'd love to hear what an actual singer would do with these songs. 2 stars.

Fourth studio album. Yes! Released on the 24 of 2016, which are both divisible by 4. There's also a song called Eight seconds! Ultimately, it's not really that great of an album for me. Seems fairly formulaic and without much emotion.

Post-hardcore, melodic hardcore, screamo. No me van estos gritos... Un 2.

Generic American shouty rock music. Rating: 2 Playlist track: Touché Amoré Date listened: 09/12/24

I like post-hardcore, but man, this guy is only capable of yelling in one specific tone and it makes everything blend together so much. Very repetitive and very depressing. Wasn't in the mood for something like this right now. Rarely am. Interesting choice though.

Felt like an early 2000's punk rock album, yet it came out in 2016.

Another "no thanks" entry for me. Screamo stuff, veers almost into pop punk territory, just fell flat for me. Not something I'd return to. 1.5/5