Dangerkids - Blacklist_ (Album Review)

Dangerkids really rose to prominence a few years ago when people were starting to tinker with the idea of a "nu-metal" revival being the next big revival movement. Bands like Dangerkids, Issues, My Ticket Home, and Islander were put as high prospects for evidence of a nu-metal revival. Their songs were drawing elements of metalcore and nu-metal to create this fusion sound. Dangerkids mainly seem to draw from modern metalcore with influences that seem to be steeped pretty heavy in nu-metal more specifically Linkin Park. Honestly their last album, Collapse worked pretty good for what it was. When Blacklist was announced I found myself looking forward to checking it out and seeing what the follow-up would sound like, which is rare these days because a lot of current metalcore just isn't doing much for me.

Blacklist is a pretty solid album. It takes what the band was doing and notches it up. I think the metalcore and nu-metal influences once again mesh well. You have the heavy moments on this album that resemble more modern day metalcore with heavy chugging riffs and screaming, but you also have those more melodic elements as well as some light rapping here and there. "Nothing Worth Saving" does a great job of showcasing the melding of genres in a successful way. It kind of showcases how well the band achieves this style. The instruments are fleshed out nicely and the vocal performances are done extremely well.

The stripped down acoustic closing number "Invincible Summer" shows the band taking a more alternative pop/rock approach. It's a different style song for the band, but it's not so far out of the band or genres wheel house that it seems out of place on the album. I think it adds something extra that I think closes the album out really nicely. The vocal performance on the song is pretty solid and it has some good sing-a-long-able lines. It may not showcase quite the array of influences as some of the other tracks but it soars high on vocal performance and overall sound. It ends up being one of the more solid and impressive songs on the album.

Overall, I think Blacklist continues to show that some of these "nu-metalcore" bands do have the talent to merge metalcore and nu-metal in a successful way that creates a solid body of work. This band still seems to be heavily influenced by Linkin Park, but on this album they're starting to make that influence more of an identity as a band than just wearing it so heavily on their sleeves. I think bands like Dangerkids and Issues, especially, are showing that they can do this over multiple albums without it becoming a novelty. I'm liking this one for the most part and I think it's easily one of the better albums from the genre I've heard in a while.