Northlane – Node

Lyrics and themes stand to get buried under the brooding aggressive weight of the genre when it comes to hardcore, but Northlane seems to be an exception. Armed with a clear purpose, the Australian band allows a combination of clean and harsh vocals to intertwine amidst their progressive-metalcore body. With some spacey undertones, Northlane’s latest full length, Node, paints a picture of a compromised humanity, misaligned by greed and a legacy of digital apathy. Exploring themes through lyrics and atmosphere, Northlane achieves what many hardcore acts lack: listener engagement beyond the visceral fireworks display.

 When “Soma” kicks off the record, the clean vocal styling of Marcus Bridge flood the instrumental continuum to symphonic effect. For those familiar, Bridge recently replaced long time frontman Adrian Fitipaldes, in effect diversifying Northlane’s sonic scope beyond the harsh barking Fitipaldes was known for. Bridge’s easy entrance fits the rumbling post-hardcore bass, before reaching his own breaking point in which he debuts his throaty growls against crunching riffs. While Bridge’s harsh vocal range is indeed limited (he’s pretty steady in delivery and doesn’t jump around as much as he perhaps should), his clean vocals make up the majority of the difference. As songs like “Obelisk” demonstrate, the basic clean-harsh and back again duality remains nothing out of the ordinary, but when backed by an interesting tempo/drum beat makes for highly engaging moments.

 Interesting instrumental highlights surface in “Nameless,” in which waves of pedal work layered by competing guitars mingle under the former’s strident riffs.  “Rot” features a tempered instrumental intermission with ambience that reemerges later in “Weightlessness,” which eventually expands the mellow, clean segments with “thin” chords not unlike those of Minus The Bear.

Lyrically, the right words “pop” at the right moments. Overarching themes of resisting the temptations of a crumbling world shine through during both clean and coarse moments. While not as instrumentally varied, they’re lyrical acuity brings to mind Enter Shikari.  “Humanity is slipping through the cracks,” belts Bridge as he sets the thematic tone during the title track’s monstrous apex. Backed by a visceral breakdown the message lands clear. The narrative continues after an ambient intermission with “nameless” identifying that “we will not stand by and let the world rot,” and later calling out the fatal contributions of technology in “Leech” with faceless interactions making people feel “so alone in a digital word,” even citing social media as an isolating force.  Even if the themes feel somewhat broad and void of situational specifics, the message lands forcefully. 

Node is a strong candidate for those that may be typically skeptical of the hardcore field.  The right lyrics and passages surface at the right times, bringing to light the much broader narrative of society’s fatiguing human interactions.  Northlane admirably balances their harsh and clean segments in a way that stands to extend beyond the typical Rise Records hardcore fare.