Every Compliance Has a Cost: Fleeting Life feat. Tyler Small of Saving Vice - Would You Kindly? (Track Review) Released: 3/6/26

Fleeting Life's "Would You Kindly?" hits like a clenched jaw finally snapping open a melodic metalcore confession that weaponizes vulnerability as much as it does groove. The band leans into their signature blend of emotional grit and sharpened hooks, but the presence of Tyler Small (of Saving Vice) pushes the track into a more volatile, cathartic register. His feature doesn't just decorate the song; it detonates inside it, adding a serrated edge to the emotional stakes.

The track is a little snippet of their concept EP Perma Death, and it moves with a sense of urgency, driven by tight riffing and a rhythm section that punches in clean, deliberate bursts. Fleeting Life's vocal delivery is raw without losing control, threading melody through the chaos in a way that feels intentional rather than polished. Lyrically, the song circles themes of manipulation, exhaustion, and the quiet violence of being asked to give more than you have left. The title is a direct nod to Bioshock's most iconic line, a phrase the game uses to expose how willingly we comply when commands are wrapped in politeness, and here it becomes a metaphor for emotional conditioning: obedience, expectation, and the breaking point where you finally refuse.

Small's verse and harmonies elevate the tension, his tone adding a colder, more desperate dimension that complements the band's warmth and grit. When the voices collide in the final stretch, the track reaches its emotional apex: a refusal to be controlled, a reclamation of autonomy, and a scream that feels like it's been held in for years. "Would You Kindly?" is Fleeting Life at their most incisive, melodic, heavy, and narratively sharp. It's a standout single that proves the band's growing command of emotional storytelling within metalcore's framework.

Give it a listen and hear exactly what it sounds like when someone refuses to be controlled:

Go give them a follow on Instagram: Fleeting Life, Tyler Small, & SAVING VICE

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Kentucky's Heavy Secret: Stormtoker - These Edibles Ain't Shit (EP Review) Released: 12/5/25

Lexington, Kentucky, isn't exactly the first city that comes to mind when you think of the sludge and stoner metal underground, but Stormtoker seems intent on changing that. Their EP These Edibles Ain't Shit arrives like a slow, crushing wave of amplifier worship and chemically-assisted existential dread, and it makes a compelling case that the Bluegrass State has something mean and heavy brewing beneath its surface. Stormtoker is a fierce, impassioned force of nature, a band that feels like devout disciples of Ozzy Osbourne who came of age at the turn of the millennium but refused to let the roots of heavy metal die. With sonic DNA tracing back to Cream, Hendrix, King Crimson, and even Arthur Brown, they summon an alluring sound that entrances as much as it pummels. This is a band equally at home in the sludge pit and the alt-rock headspace, a melodic restlessness running beneath the downtuned grime that keeps things unpredictable and owing as much to the 90s alternative u...

The Long Way to Simple: SMFC -The First Four Songs (EP Review) Released: 2/20/26 (Part 1) & 3/27/26 (Part 2)

There's something refreshingly unpretentious about calling your debut EP The First Four Songs . No cryptic title, no elaborate concept, no attempt to manufacture mystique out of thin air. Just Steev Custer, a guitarist with more than thirty years of Chicago scene credibility behind him, putting his work in front of you and letting it speak for itself. In an era when even the smallest releases arrive wrapped in press releases thick with buzzwords and carefully curated influences, that kind of directness feels almost radical. Custer is not a new name to anyone who's paid attention to the Chicago punk and rock underground, and his fingerprints are all over the city's musical history with names such as Death and Memphis, The Bomb, and My Big Beautiful. It's a lengthy résumé that spans post-punk, power pop, and everything in between, but these are bands built on the premise that a great song is worth more than a great concept, and that ethos carries directly into SMFC, his...

Brutal Descent into Darkness: Heliophilia - Fire, Borne Of The Sky (Track Review) Released 3/8/26

There's something genuinely impressive about a two-piece act that can conjure a wall of sound dense enough to feel like a full band assault, and that's exactly what Marinette, Wisconsin's Heliophilia accomplishes on "Fire, Borne of the Sky." Comprised of Michael Vandermuse and Kyle Bush, this underground metal duo has crafted a track that blends deathcore brutality, black metal atmosphere, and dark fantasy storytelling into something that feels far bigger than its two-person lineup would suggest. From the outset, "Fire, Borne of the Sky" makes clear that this isn't going to be a conventional metal track. It opens with an eerie, synth-driven low-frequency atmosphere that immediately sets a tone of dread before the track explodes into cavernous, down-tuned guitar riffs and crushing drum work. That contrast between quiet menace and overwhelming heaviness becomes the song's defining structural choice, and it's one that Heliophilia leans into ...

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