Truth be told, though, not since 2011’s sprightly Sinners Never Sleep have You Me At Six significantly pushed the envelope and sought to cover musical territory far from their core sound. That record saw the band collaborate with Bring Me The Horizon’s Oli Sykes and Parkway Drive’s Winston McCall, in the process penning some genuinely heavy, dark-at-heart material to counteract their clean-cut early hits. Now, with their seventh album SUCKAPUNCH, You Me At Six are once more treading down a darker path. And while there are no metalcore guest features this time, what this does showcase is a maturing band breaking free of convention.
Right from the start, the angst levels are elevated significantly from previous album, VI. Opening track Nice To Me sees frontman Josh Franceschi deliver a biting vocal performance filled with gloomy overtones, in the process building a bleak ambience from which SUCKAPUNCH progresses. Second track MAKEMEFEELALIVE is similarly impressive, with Josh spitting venom once more as he declares ‘Make me feel alive / I’m so fucking dead inside.’
What follows is a nice change of pace, courtesy of album highlight Beautiful Way. It’s more like the You Me At Six we know and comes complete with a festival-ready chorus that sees Josh sing about how ‘We’re fucked up in a beautiful way,’ but the evocative atmosphere of this album as a whole remains, as do the driving guitars of Max Helyer and Chris Miller, whose performances consistently complement SUCKAPUNCH’s heavy use of electronics.