Honestly, it’s difficult to believe this day has finally come: at long last, we can hold a new Loathe album in our hands and confirm that it does actually exist. The Liverpool-based crew have a mystique surrounding them at this point, not just because they’ve been so elusive for the last six years, but because 2020’s ‘I Let It In and It Took Everything’ was such a landmark release for alternative metalcore. Their new project sees them boldly moving the goalposts once more.

Even now, with countless bands infesting the genre, Loathe’s breakout record continues to be one of the most brutal auditory assaults in modern metal— that’s not to say, however, that time has stood still these last six years. Were the tracks released today, the slamming brutality of ‘Gored’ and ‘Aggressive Evolution’ wouldn’t be quite as noteworthy as it was back then, a fact Loathe themselves seem well aware of. On ‘A Stranger To You,’ it’s easy to hear how the group are forging ahead, eager to outrun their imitators: that might explain, then, why their newest record sounds the way it does. 

No, dear readers, your speakers are not broken— the blasts of guitar you’ll hear on ‘Block Of Flats’ really are that muddy and abrasive. These fourteen tracks, varied as they may be, all exist in the same murky soundscape, where dreamy pop textures and harrowing walls of distortion are allowed to coexist: it’s almost Deftones-like in a sense, in that the diabolical bursts of ‘Gemini’ wash over you in just the same way as the melodic offerings of ‘Harder To Pretend,’ but ‘A Stranger To You’ is clearly a far more ambitious effort than ‘private music’ was last year. That it to say, Loathe’s approach to sound design is unlike anything else on the market, and the heights they’ve been able to reach because of it are absolutely staggering… and just as worthy of discussion as the myriad of problems the record runs headfirst into.

‘I Let It In…’ was an inventive record, but it still saw fit to employ conventionally heavy guitar tones: not so here, as Loathe appear to have run their instruments through a toaster to record ‘A Stranger To You.’ The levels of abrasion and extremity we’re dealing with on this one are dizzying, and they do have their moments— single ‘Revenant’ pushes its riffs to such a hilarious degree that they wrap around to be impressive— but for the most part, the album’s largest moments would probably have enjoyed a little more restraint in post. The stunted breakdown that caps off ‘Meet My Maker’ is a prime example of how the band’s need to run from labels and genre-confines can, at least on some occasions, end up working against them.

It’s almost ironic that this group— who’s name, need I remind you, is ‘Loathe’— find much more success in their explorations of genres outside of metalcore. France and company do everything they can to defy a singular label here, throwing electronic breaks, alternative rock passages, acoustic ballads, dream pop illusions and more at you in rapid succession. As you would expect, ‘A Stranger To You’ is a whirlwind of an album, though it is probably a little less frenetic than ‘I Let It In…’ before it: these songs are often subject to rapid transitions and fiercely linear structures, but taken as a whole, it must be said that the record does manage to carve out a cohesive, and dare we say strong, identity for itself.

The group’s penchant for melody is given a delightful amount of room to breathe here, flowing through the flowery ‘The Way It Breaks’ and the shockingly tender ‘The Ladder:’ again, it really is funny to see these songs, which are nothing if not easy-going, benefit more from the record’s hazy aesthetic than a menacing track like ‘Gemini’ does. Whenever Loathe manage to marry the extremes of their sound, ‘A Stranger To You’ really shines— the driving beat Sean Radcliffe brings to ‘Harder To Pretend,’ the gripping note choices that make up ‘Fangs’ and the sweet sentimentality of the closing track are just a few of the wonderful highlights you’ll find across this labyrinthine listen. The cherry on top is ‘Gifted Every Strength,’ a song that somehow manages to capture every facet of why Loathe are such an exciting band, all in one ever-evolving epic.

In yet another cruel twist of fate, Loathe’s newest album has us feeling like a stranger to it, even after diving into it so thoroughly: it really is quite unlike anything else around! Abstract lyrical choices, constant self-reinventions and mind-bending sonic textures are nothing new for this group, but even then, ‘A Stranger To You’ is a beast all its own. It may not stick the landing in every moment, but when the pieces fall into place, the record is able to give you an experience like no other— that, at the absolute minimum, is worthy of your respect.