Samskara’s re-release EP arrives as a revised version of the band’s first recorded work, newly tracked, mixed, and produced by Matt Redenbo at Magpie Cage and mastered by Kevin Bernsten at Developing Nations. The original songs remain the same, but the presentation is different enough to matter.
Samskara is a Baltimore-based three-piece formed around guitar and vocals from Billy Jarboe, bass from Won Cho, and drums from Thomas Murphy. They started playing shows in 2023 and have steadily embedded themselves in the local circuit, drawing from post-black metal, screamo, emo, and post-hardcore without locking into one lane. That blend is the core of this EP, and the re-release is less about reinvention than clarification.
The tracklist—“Ashen”, “Lonely”, “Blazed”, and “Ferns”—leans long-form and patient. Songs stretch past six minutes when they need to, with structures that feel built rather than stacked. What keeps it adventurous is the facts that it moves through shifts in density and pace instead of relying on constant peaks. Additional vocals from D. Anton Ojeda appear on “Lonely” and “Ferns”, subtly widening the emotional register without pulling focus away from the band’s central dynamic.
The way different threads, moods, and styles are intertwined is genuinely compelling, with each shift feeling intentional but never fully resolved, as if the songs are constantly negotiating between emotional exposure, tension, and collapse rather than settling into a single defined space.
Haunted, wrath-like screams collapse into beautiful, almost post-rock passages, with harsh, creepy, hard-to-pin-down transitions between screamo and underground black metal that refuse to settle into anything predictable. When it shifts, it does so abruptly: post-hardcore chants surface briefly, only to be pulled back into something rawer, moving from dungeon-like tension into poetic emo screamo without warning. It’s an unstable listening experience in the best sense, where atmosphere and aggression constantly trade places, and following Samskara through those turns feels less like tracking a genre blend and more like being dragged through a genuinely absorbing journey.
What stands out most in this new version is the balance. The production doesn’t sand down the harsher edges, but it gives each instrument more room to exist on its own terms.
A Bandcamp review from Joshua (Kiande Amedha / Renesmee) captures that tension well: “Samskara’s ability to consistently create music that straddles the lines of emo, posthxc, and black metal without feeling disjointed amazes me. This is heart on your sleeve hxc/bm with a ton of personality, yet less of the vocal focus that often provides that personality. Incredibly impressive, as always.” It’s a useful frame—this is expressive music, but it resists obvious signposts.
“Ferns”, noted by Joshua as a favorite track, works as a kind of quiet centerpiece. It unfolds slowly, letting repetition do the work rather than forcing resolution. “Ashen” opens the EP with a shorter, more direct cut, while “Lonely” and “Blazed” explore longer arcs, moving between restraint and release without leaning into genre clichés.
The re-release also functions as a marker. After this EP, the band plans a new double-sided release, with a split projected further down the line in 2026 or 2027. In that context, this version feels like a line being drawn under their starting point—documenting where they came from, but with the sound quality and intent better aligned with where they’re heading.
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In a scene where mixing styles often turns into overreach, this re-release stays steady by keeping things controlled and intentional, relying on how the band actually plays together rather than leaning on named influences.
