Loathe - I Let It In And It Took Everything Album Review

Review by Brady Cloven

The journey of UK’s Loathe can best be described by one of their singles- an Aggressive Evolution. With metalcore at the front, Loathe has embraced their mantra of “loathe as one” and brought the various influences and skills of their individual selves and melted them down into one collective piece. 2016’s EP Prepare Consume Proceed and 2017’s The Cold Sun laid the groundwork for Loathe’s sophomore album, I Let It In And It Took Everything¸ which is the culmination of everything the band has worked towards. With metalcore at the forefront, I Let It In And It Took Everything does not allow itself to be boxed in by one genre or label, but instead takes everything from its creators and the music that has made them who they are to become something more powerful and extraordinary than listeners could have imagined.

The album starts of with the ambient Theme which highlights one of Loathe’s best-known qualities. They craft some of the most beautiful songs by trading in lyrics for synth and electronic elements that transport you to a whole new place. Aggressive Evolution kicks the main event off with its jagged riffs, rapidly shifting pitches, and intensely groovy bass. As with most of their songs, the influence of Deftones is heavy on this track when guitarist/vocalist Erik Bickerstaffe brings the breathy, soothing vocals side by side with the throat-shredding screams of Kadeem France who’s range knows no bounds as he seems to jump from low, sinister growls to high-pitched fry screams without any effort. Broken Vision Rhythm takes the hint from its predecessor and keeps the intensity going. This track is so chaotic and explosive that it almost sounds like the group are throwing their instruments around the stage in beautiful destruction while Kadeem projects his godly voice that is layered all over the track.

As your heart continues to race, Two-Way Mirror slows everything down and becomes something almost identical to Deftones as the heavy-breath voice dances on the riffs and synth. Chino Moreno himself shared this song’s music video on Twitter, as if you needed any more reason to listen to it. 451 brings back the moody atmosphere that started the album as it includes fuzzy dialogue samples. I feel like Loathe could score movies with how beautifully this is done. New Faces In The Dark features a new wave riff that opens this banger of a track and once more we are taken into the dark depths of all this band can do. Kadeem sounds both demonic and heavenly as he screams his way through this track only to be broken up by more of Erik Bickerstaffe and his soothing, shoe-gazey voice. Red Room is shorter than most of the other tracks, but it is also possibly one of the heaviest as it’s synth-laden intro gives way pounding drums and guitar scratches that sound like screams themselves while the actual vocals are crushing you.

Screaming sounds like it could be something that Title Fight would have come out with in their prime. It features more of Bickerstaffe’s screams, but in more of a 90’s alt-rock style than nu-metal. The riffs are still fuzzy as hell and the bass continues to groove on as Kadeem comes out of the dark with unmatched ferocity. This track features an amazing breakdown sequence about halfway through that left a smile plastered across my face. Is It Really You? brings in heavy shoegaze elements alongside the Deftones vibes. It’s dark and gloomy, yet celestial. It’s close, yet so distant. Essentially, it’s a masterpiece. Gored follows up with elements that sound like they are straight out of a horror movie. It’s eerie and saturated in dread from which there is no escape. The whole track is amazing, but the breakdown at the end is bone-crushingly HEAVY. I hope you weren’t expecting any relief from this chaos because Heavy Is The Head That Falls With The Weight Of A Thousand Thoughts brings blast beats out to play with the eerily looped vocals and distortion as the riffs go from bouncing to thrashing and scratching without a moment’s notice. While it’s fair to note all the Deftones influence riddled throughout their entire career, this song is an example of just how many different elements the band bring into the mix as it borrows from both black metal and nu-metal here. A Sad Cartoon shifts gears back to more new-wave post punk feel that works extremely well as it transitions to the synth-heavy atmosphere in A Sad Cartoon (Reprise). I Let It In And It Took Everything completes the album with everything that makes Loathe who they are-industrial influence, sludge-soaked riffs and vicious, possessed screams that cut back and forth in schizophrenic rage until everything slows down to bring out the fuzzy, soothing vocals layered on top of each other.

It’s as close to perfection as humanely possible. At its very core, I Let It In And It Took Everything is an album that exudes passion, creativity, and ambition. Loathe has taken all of their influences and mixed them with their own elements, some new and some familiar, to give us what ultimately sounds like a Loathe album would and should sound like, and that is amazing! This band has been able to explode in a genre that is so overcrowded that it feels like nothing fresh and new will ever come out of it, but what I feel when I listen to Loathe is something that no other band has been able to give me my entire life. There’s so much about this album that I love, so please, let it in and let it take everything.