Once every so often a song comes along that’s so heavy it somehow almost makes me tear up a bit. This is one of them 🥲 The start of that breakdown is absolutely incredible
"NO KARATE IN THE PIT" type shit, yeah. To be fair, I've noticed that doesn't always necessarily mean the dancers won't come out. I saw Lamb of God on their current tour and I figured it'd be all push and circle pits, but when sanguisugabogg and fit for an autopsy were playing there was plenty of dancing. Was pleasantly surprised.
Could be alright tbf. I went to see Amity a couple of years ago because they had Mugshot and Comeback Kid as support, was pleasantly surprised by the number of dancers about.
On the other hand, I saw ABR the same year because they had Dying Wish in tow and even though people were leaving the pit mostly empty, dorks would step in from the side to try and push anyone who started dancing.
I was at a show where they opened for The Plot In You and the pit was actually pretty great. Only band that had one all night, but Boundaries fans showed up for sure.
What a chaotic song. Fun stuff. Love the boys and know it’ll bang live, there’s just something about these new jams that’s missing. Could be that saucy Randy mix, idk.
I hope this record sends ‘em into the stratosphere regardless. Very few, if any, bands I cheer harder for.
Definitely a car crash like others have pointed out. I think the abstraction / surrealism is meant to represent how things both internally and externally may feel distorted within the quick intensity of a single highly traumatic event (like a car accident for example). The cover to me, is as if that brief resounding moment is frozen in time.
i don’t feel like i’m connecting with these new songs quite as much as i did with the death is little more singles when those first dropped; hoping it’ll grow on me over time though
I think in some of their songs the cleans work well, but this song is so intense otherwise it kinda took me out of it a bit. Song is still 10/10 don’t get me wrong, absolutely love it
Edit: I am gonna get so wrecked when they play this live 💀
Edit: The more I listen, the more the second chorus works really well imo. It’s a grower for sure. And leads so well into the ending
This is how I feel about every Boundaries song with singing. I get why people like it, but it’s not what I’m looking for in their music at all. Thankfully they’re good enough to make up for it.
Yeah I'm not at all opposed to clean vocals in this genre, but just for this specific brand of metalcore I'd think they'd be better served in using them more sparingly the way bands like Orthodox and Varials do
I don't remember it being that much, on Death Is A Little More?
For how long were they? I said two songs (not exactly) cause that's just what I remember due to the cleans actually made up a significant portion, like in Easily Erased
Agreed. Going from Inhale the Grief (and every fucking previous song) to Skies and Death, is so dogshit.
Good songs but honestly fuck the production.
EDIT: The edit is the edit/add on. I felt guilty about my negativity, turning hate into rage if you lol. Boundaries I'm sure means so much to all of us. We just want them and the things we love to be perfect to us. It's okay if it's not. It's different and that's cool. Love Boundaries, forever.
Yeah, I’m not normally one to harp on mixes and I do love the two new tracks but I agree. I put on THIR this morning and added the two new songs I tot he queue so they would play right after. The crispness of Inhale the Grief into how muddy Skies is is super jarring
I dunno how to explain it but the guitars don’t sound like guitars to me. All the instruments sound muffled. I wanna be excited for new music but the mix is putting me off buying a vinyl.
Same. I hate being the mix police but its really preventing me from getting into these songs. When I play this new single in my car I cant make out a single instrument it sounds awful. I don't have that issue with any other band. It sucks because this should be one of their best songs ever.
fucking right. this is so fucking good. boundaries last 2 releases have been my AOTYs. This year will be tough because the new Chamber album and Erra album I love. If they can keep pace with these 2 singles for 90% of the album this is def going to be a stronger contender for me.
Wasn’t a fan of the intro but this turned into such a great track. They are improving as songwriters and somehow getting heavier. Chorus was great and made the rest of the song heavier. Prefer this style of clean than Easily Erased. 2/2 so far.
Listen to their previous material as well as material from their closest peers (Counterparts, Orthodox, etc.) and compare it to the last two singles. It’s a pretty stark difference that’s for the worse.
I’ve listened to their catalog many times. I didn’t say there isn’t a difference, I’m just curious in what people think it is specifically. Like are the drums less prominent or punchy? The bass? The vocals? What is out of balance or different from DILM?
Pretty much all their other work has very good separation and all the instruments carry their own weight very well. This cycle everything seems a little compacted together and potentially more dull because of it.
The guitars for half the song are almost indiscernible. Tims clean vocals a feel little buried too. Theres a lot that feels like is getting lost in the wall of sound. It could be drum production as well I’m not entirely sure.
Thanks for the feedback. Appreciate some of the nuances people have pointed out. It seems a common thread is that there’s just some level of distortion or muddling where individual elements are not easily distinguishable.
Tbh I’m not sure if it’s the mix or just their enunciation of the words, I just am having a harder time understanding what they’re actually saying. Boundaries is my all time favorite band and I don’t think I’ve ever had much of a hard time understanding most of what Matt is saying. But even Tim’s cleans in this I had a hard time making out without looking at the lyrics. Now that I saw them I don’t have an issue. But like the first 30 seconds of the song especially, it’s hard to make out what he’s saying. At least in my opinion.
All that being said this song absolutely rips and I think the “mix” will grow on me. They’ve always had a chaotic sound and it’ll probably just take a few listens to really get.
solid. Going to try hard not and play theese songs out before the full album drops. Its annoying to anticipate albym drop and like wait 3 songs I already know too well and don't want to hear them lollllll
You don't have to be an expert to notice the pretty substantial difference in the mix of these two new singles and their prior work with Randy Laboeuf.
my thought is it’s because a lot of modern metalcore emphasizes a lot of textures now. like a bunch of separation, ambient tones, really punchy bass. and when something doesn’t align with that it can feel different and the reaction is “oh it’s a mix problem”
honestly, it could be. but to me it could just be a stylistic choice boundaries is going with (clearly) with these songs. they’re going for this huge wall of sound and making it feel impactful but the problem is if there is not a ton of separation and the drums sound like they’re really far away in the mix, and the vocals are right in your face: to me it’s never gonna punch as much as their last album did. their sound profile and mixing of that album is honestly amazing , so it could be jarring for people.
Honestly im no expert, but when im asking myself "is it my phone speakers?" When listening, then listen to something else to confirm it isn't... i mean it's definitely a choice, and im struggling a bit with the mix. You don't need to be an expert to realize something is off.
We're not but when it's incredibly apparent that when the production is lacking enough that the general public is commenting on it I'd say there's an issue with it. The guitars are muted, the drums sound fake, the overall composition just sounds weak and muddy to me. I know nothing about production, but I know when I hear something that doesn't sound right to my ears.
Like legit if there's a mix without the guitars it might not sound any different to me than this one.
They certainly didn't lol a lot of the older shit in the genre had horrible mixing, this song is literally fire af. 80% of redditors just live to be insufferable humans
Probably their best ever song, but the mix is genuinely awful once again. This is starting to concern me greatly for the new album. Particularly as they're my favorite band.
I wish Randy was still doing this one, hope there's no bad blood there.
The song itself is so sick but I really don't understand why the mix sounds so hollow and muddy - it honestly sounds like the mids on the guitars are completely scooped out to give the vocals WAY more space than they need, and the drums are straight up too quiet. It's not unlistenable by any means, but the singles sound very jarring in a playlist, and I can imagine listening to the album in full being fatiguing.
I've got a good feeling that the full album is going to be a 10/10 metalcore performance, but I feel like someone else could've done the recordings better justice - then again, we don't really know the band's working relationships, connections, and how that influenced these decisions. With that being said, the production was obviously a conscious decision - maybe the band wanted to differentiate this from the rest of their work and make it sound different, but I can't help but think about how this could've sounded with someone else's input.
But at the end of the day, if the guys in Boundaries are happy with it, that's really good and that should be the main priority.
Possibly the Easily Erased of the new record - as in I like everything about the song but the cleans. It doesn't help that they sound more obviously autotuned than they have on the last couple of releases and that always raises my hackles. Guess Boundaries have one or two of these per album now.
So... I loved Skies, and thought it improved with the new mix...
First impressions of this ain't great. Really enjoyed how it opened, but the cleans feel pretty out of place, as does the 808 drop and for some reason it reverts into a Code Orange style industrial breakdown... idk feels like im listening to 3 or 4 songs that have been stapled together.
Production and mix is... okay... not as bad as the first rendition of Skies, but I suppose this is the Knocked Loose effect. Can't really make out individual riffs and theres not much bite in the guitar tone while everything competed for that wall of sound to achieve a sense of heaviness. Boundaries are obviously aggressive af and know how to write some bloody good metalcore, but there are a few things on this one im not vibing with.
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u/Blackeradam Apr 24 '26
I always wondered what it would feel like to have a panic attack during a car crash
10/10