Many in metalcore circles talk about Boundaries as the band that can save the genre from irrelevance. When we say metalcore, we mean the young groups that take inspiration from Slipknot rather than anything in hardcore. This earns them much opprobrium from metalheads as does their obsession with breakdowns, perfect drum engineering, and low-tuned guitars. Can a band that formed in 2013 with no original members in its ranks be the unit that creates the bond with the next generation of alternative kids? Sumerian Records think so.
You’ll check if the needle is stuck on your vinyl for the first thirty seconds as all band members thump the same one-chord formation in ‘Malconscience’. It makes the chugging riff that follows even more delectable. Make no mistake: you’ll see blood in your eyes and feel it at the back of your mouth. This is heavy. The backing screams of “You’re fucking nothing,” are deliberate in their attempt to shred the throat of its originator.
So, what is there to deconstruct here? The answer is just enough to stay interested. ‘Skies Cast Amber Black’ and ‘May This Pain Never Leave’ take the drop-tuned guitars of Periphery, the simple syncopation of nu metal, and the violent palm-muting of Knocked Loose and make drummer, Tim Sullivan, stay focused on accenting each chug as if shadowing the movement of a boxer. Panic chords throttle you by the throat. Screams grate. Words resonate in total hatred of duplicitous people that have crossed paths with the members of the band. In other words, deceivers, cheaters, malign influences and gas-lighters are the enemy here.
Unfortunately, Boundaries succumb to the metalcore cliché of inserting clean vocals into at least twenty percent of the songs here. Sticksman Tim Sullivan is the guilty party. He sounds like a twelve-year-old boy who wants to smash up his bedroom after his parents confiscated his smartphone. Why does something as raw and as brutal as this need to include the vocal equivalent of bedwetting in its armoury? This is a real shame because ‘Bitter Ash, Bitter Love’ can hold its own against Frontierer or Car Bomb. “Well aware the cemetery is the only one waiting for me / Addled, adverse, and stricken / Separated from a world that never fucking listened / I hope one day I can die for this,” is the bitter message. ‘Death Will Follow Me’ is just as devastating.
On second listen, you realise this record is what Sepultura had in mind when they changed their sound in the mid-1990s. Nu metal had little to offer by the end of the 1990s, but new converts have multiplied over the last fifteen years, and Boundaries are no exception as purveyors of angst-ridden music. The difference is that they have no time for hip hop or pocket grooves and plenty of time for the dynamics of beatdown hardcore. They also draw from some interesting sources beyond these. The brief expedition into Underoath’s signature post-hardcore arrives in ‘Unequal Whole’ but with a command of the down-tuned guitars worthy of The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza. You’ll feel your biceps coming to life if you surrender to the breakdown at the end. But this grows tiresome in the second half of the album, especially when they subject you to the same combination on almost every track. When in doubt, Boundaries go for the Gojira pick scrape and aim for the pit with their best Hatebreed impression.
This album does not leave you yearning for more. Indeed, the fourteen songs make forty-seven minutes feel like an hour. The spasms of blast beats in ‘The Leper’s Bell’ are well intentioned but too overproduced. By contrast, the deadly stabs of guitar in ‘Crowned and Crucified’ and ‘Nothing Gathered’ are irresistible in their rhythmic perfection. You can hear lead axeman, Cody DelVecchio, leave his imprint in the fast scale runs to remind us that there’s more to this group than palm-muting the open strings and firing off breakdowns. Likewise, ‘Wasted Angel’ is Slipknot under the thumb of Knocked Loose, and any person over thirty who hates it is kidding themselves by calling it plastic extreme metal. This could bring down the Brooklyn bridge.
More hit than miss but plagued by too many clichés, Yearning: The Unbeautiful After deserves to put Boundaries at the forefront of modern metalcore, but those two words combined seldom do anything interesting. The foundations are here to evolve into something better, and they should start by dropping the clean vocals or learning how to incorporate them with more imagination.
Kirk Houghton
Verdict
Release Date: 17/07/2026
Record Label: Sumerian Records
Standout tracks: Malconscience; Bitter Ash, Bitter Love; Nothing Gathered
Suggested Further Listening: As I Lay Dying – An Ocean Between Us (2007), August Burns Red – Guardians (2020), Knocked Loose – You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To (2024)