If you were to make a Venn diagram of metalcore and mainstream pop, at the point where they meet would sit
Issues, a metalcore band merging the two disparate worlds together to create a sort of "new nu-metal." Mixing R&B's rhythmic sensibility with crushing breakdowns, songs like "Mad at Myself" feel like a mosh pit broke out in the middle of an
R. Kelly jam. A combination like this can be a little hard to wrap your head around, but a few tracks into their self-titled album, the listener is immersed enough in their crazy experiment that things start to make sense (at least as much sense as they're likely to). While hearing metal with record scratching is likely to cause flashbacks for veterans of the '90s nu-metal explosion,
Issues put enough of their own spin on things to feel like something new, which feels like a praiseworthy accomplishment in an increasingly homogenous genre. ~ Gregory Heaney