“Your records spin but do you ever really listen in?”
Hailing from Long Island, Koyo are definitely a band to watch out for. Just formed a little over a year ago at the start of the world wide pandemic with members of metallic hardcore acts Hangman, Typecast and Rain Of Salvation, Koyo play a style of hardcore punk that seemed to be lost for nearly a decade. Their new 7″ EP “Drives Out East” is out now on Triple B Records.
Koyo’s first record “Painting Words Into Lines” was released in Spring 2020 and had only a marginal impact outside of the East Coast hardcore scene but with their signing to Triple B and their new EP things are about to change for the band. “Drives Out East” sounds like that kind pop punk infused highly emotional hardcore that was famous in the early 2000s. Set Your Goals, early Four Year Strong and The Movielife are bands that shaped that particular style of melodic hardcore about 15 years ago.
“Drives Out East” is not Koyo’s approach to sound like the just named bands, of course not. But when you first listen to the opener “Moriches” (named after a street on Long Island) you immediately have to think about Set Your Goals’ groundbreaking debut full length “Mutiny!”: Screamed but clean emotional vocals paired with poppy riffing that sometimes evolves into a moshable breakdown.
What makes “Drives Out East” a great record is not its potential to mosh hard. Surely, you can do that, escpecially to breakdowns like they appear in “Since You Asked”. But “Drives Out East” is a record you rather can scream your heart out to. There is no stand-out track on this EP, since all songs are heartfelt and testify a great musicianship and songwriting. But when you have to name one, it’s the third and most versatile track “Diamond One” featuring guest vocals by Abby Rhine of Life’s Question
Lyric-wise, the songs deal with the feeling of isolation in the course of the pandemic and also a lot of other personal things like broken promises. “Drives Out East” was recorded at Shellshock Audio (yeah, finally not at The Pit or Studio 4) with Chris Rini, who worked with bands like Rule Them All or Sanction in the past, and did make Koyo’s EP sound great.
The six piece out of Stony Brook, Long Island has crafted a very good record with “Drives Out East” that only picks up the best elements of early 00s melodic hardcore. It’s also a great record for warm summer days driving in your car to the seaside or a friends BBQ. At least, “Drives Out East” is only 12 minutes long, that’s the only bad thing about it. So let’s hope Koyo will drop more music sooner or later. If you like hardcore with a pinch of pop punk and emo, check this record out.
Memory Screen * 