After nearly a year-long musical hiatus, Kingseeker is back on the metalcore scene with their hard-hitting and vibrant sound in “Passing Moments, Caught Forever,” marking their second full-length venture into the realm of aggressive and energetic metalcore. Known for their electrifying live performances, the band has once again captured the essence of the raw energy they bring to the stage in this latest offering.
The band has taken a minimalistic approach with their latest single “…and i explode,” focusing on delivering an aggressive, catchy, and to-the-point experience. Drawing inspiration from modern metal, hardcore, and even pop, Kingseeker has crafted an energetic sound that resonates with the aggressive and catchy vibes of the genre.
The journey began in early 2022 with the release of their debut album “Daily Reminders,” which received positive acclaim from Norwegian blogs like heavymetal.no and metallurgi.org, and international platforms like ours and metalnoise.net. They continued to ride the wave of success with their EP “Grief” released in October 2022, which was lauded by metallurgi.org as one of the best EP releases of the year.
Now, as a treat to the fans and to promote their upcoming music, Jan, the vocalist of Kingseeker, has penned down his top choices for heavy releases in 2023, focusing primarily on the underground and the Norwegian/Scandinavian scene.
Today marks another milestone for Kingseeker with the premiere of a new single from their upcoming album.
The band’s gratitude is extended to Delta Options for the artwork and Harvey Productions for the streaming support. Recorded at Toproom Studio and produced by Emil Bringsli of Bringsli Productions, the new track embarks on a melodic hardcore journey, escalating in aggression akin to metalcore with an epic cinematic buildup, leading to a powerful yet emotional conclusion, showcasing a blend of modern melodic hardcore and nostalgic emo post-hardcore vibes from the 00s.
1. Naga Siren – Cut And Run
Naga Siren with members from Oberst and former members of Ieatheartattacks and Despereaux have been releasing a new single each month since January. I believe this one was the first came out. Extremely catch, perfect if you need that old Paramore 2010 vibe. Vocals are fucking pristine. All their songs this year have been amazing, so i really recommend you have a listen.
2. Obzene / CSN – Ghost train
Obzene is a proggy, djenty alternative band (sorry if this is completely wrong) coming out of Trondheim. And CSN is a rapper/HipHop artist. These two have been pushing out collaborations the last couple of months. And this song is in my opinion the one that has been the most successful in showcasing both parties sound and making it cohesive.
Imagine The Weeknd featuring on a Sleep Token song, thats this song.
3. Lüdo – Deafened Senses
The first actual ep of the list.
I wanted to keep it to singles, but this EP is such a cohesive piece of music that listening to one song really isn’t fair to it.
You can hear a lot of post hardcore like Sufferer, Dance Gavin Dance and Paramore in this in my opinion. Especially the song Choking on butterflies has this years most catchy chorus!
4. Crecended – I don’t hide
This band is new in a releases sense, but very old in concept. Main songwriter has worked on songs since 2010 i think. Here in Norway people compare them to Arch Enemy etc because theyre vocalist is female, and she screams, but thats a disservice to them. Theyre more than tha. They’re the best parts of Trivium, Jinjer, Killswitch Engage and so many other 2010 bands.
Their compositions run a little long for my taste, but this song is truly a banger and has an amazing dynamic throughout.
5. Beyond The Barricade – bLEEDING
Beyond the barricade’s first release with the new vocalist Kajsa, but even better, it features vocals from her now husband Eivind from Råte.
Song is intense and has amazing instrumentation akin back to old school deathcore. As we say in norway “Klikker da!”.
