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Heavy With Purpose: Potential Spam - Still Futile (Track Review) Released: 3/3/26

 


Aurora, Illinois, has quietly become a city with something to prove. Potential Spam, the metal and midwest emo project built from the collective noise of Tacio on guitar and vocals, Russ on bass, and Luca on drums, arrive with Still Futile, the lead single from their upcoming Cut EP, and they arrive swinging. This is a band that understands the grammar of two genres that have no business working as well together as they do here, and they write in both fluently.

Still Futile operates in that uncomfortable space between grief and aggression that midwest emo has always orbited, but Potential Spam refuses to let the song settle into wistfulness. The metal influence isn't decorative, it's structural. The heaviness isn't a seasoning on top of an emo foundation; it's load-bearing. Where a lesser band might use the genre pairing as a crutch, leaning into the emo when things get soft and the metal when things get loud, Potential Spam keeps both tensions alive simultaneously. The result is a track that never quite lets you exhale.

Tacio carries the dual responsibility of melodic articulation and vocal delivery, and Still Futile demonstrates that both instruments are in capable hands. There's a quality to the guitar work that suggests someone who has spent equal time with both catalogs, the kind of riffing that knows when to open up into something almost beautiful before pulling the rug. The vocals sit inside the music rather than above it, which is a choice that pays off; Tacio's voice doesn't announce itself so much as it emerges from the noise, which gives the emotional core of the song a rawness that feels genuinely unguarded. Russ and Luca form a rhythm section that doesn't merely support the song but actively shapes it. Luca's drumming provides the propulsive, purposeful backbone that keeps the track from collapsing under its own emotional density, while Russ holds the low end with a grounded presence that gives every heavier moment its full weight.

Still Futile is a song that knows exactly what it is and refuses to apologize for any of its messy, heavy, earnest, precision. As a preview of the Cut EP, it's a strong opening argument, the kind of single that doesn't just represent a record but makes a case for a band. Potential Spam is three people working through something real, and the music sounds like it. If the rest of Cut EP holds this standard, Aurora is about to make some noise.


Give Potential Spam's Still Futile a spin:


Go give them a follow on Instagram: Potential Spam

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