REVIEW: Church Tongue – You’ll Know it Was Me [EP/2025]
Artist: Church Tongue
Album: You’ll Know it Was Me – EP
Originally known as Conquerors, Church Tongue have a stunning (but well deserved) following and near-perfect, albeit brief, discography given their relatively short time as an active band. There’s a good chance that if you’re reading this, it’s because of the cavalcade of hype surrounding the band’s return with their upcoming EP You’ll Know it Was Me, you might be wondering why they have the following they do—and hopefully, by the time you’re done reading, you at least begin to get it. Boasting a blend between precise, pummeling metalcore and chaotic, unpredictable hardcore, Church Tongue’s You’ll Know it Was Me is a stunning return to the underground’s forefront, taking a threnody of terrifying riffs and explosive breakdowns just to put them in a head-on collision with carefully crafted and surreal atmosphere. While it’s been just about four full years since the band’s last release, You’ll Know it Was Me sees the band moving as though they’ve never missed a beat, emerging as a robust frontrunner for metalcore in the year 2025.
You’ll Know it Was Me is a conceptual album about love—and before you groan that another metalcore band is writing a record about love, you need to hear this out. Each track touches on love in a different context and style with one unifying thread: abundant and uncompromising passion. Whether its the erratic aggression and frenzied throes of “Heart of Darkness” or the droning, abyssal weight of “The Fury of Love,” Church Tongue are wholly uncompromising and ambitious throughout their scalding return. Percussionist Kyle Spinell is the cantankerous and unwavering pulse of the band, driving ever onward with the rapid fits of spastic blast beats on “Heart of Darkness” that contrast beautifully with the rare moments of ethereal equipoise found throughout “You’ll Know it Was Me” and the aforementioned “The Fury of Love.” Throughout the release, Spinell works intimately with bassist Jack Sipes as well as guitarists Nicko Calderon and Chris Sawicki to make each track feel distinct and deliberate. “You’ll Know it Was Me” sees the band drift into a realm of bleak, dreary melancholy, whereas the records first two cuts—especially the blistering “One Hand Wrapped Around the Sun”—see Calderon and Sawicki riffing and chugging away just as frantically as Spinell can hammer out a beat. Together, the group effortlessly oscillates between frenzied dissonance, egregious heaviness and eerie calm with an earnest, incredible precision that exemplifies just how well Church Tongue function as a dynamic unit.
While the immense instrumentation throughout Church Tongue’s latest EP sets a remarkable tone for the exploration of love and its consequence, the lyrics and vocals from Mike Sugars—alongside several stunning guests—bring the entire message home. Sugars (who may be known more recently for his work in PSYCHO-FRAME and Vatican) stuns with his vocal range, lyrical composition and immolating delivery throughout You’ll Know it Was Me. I’m not one to dive into precise lyrics and a detailed discussion on themes—especially on a conceptually crafted record—but whether its Sugars’ tales of learning to love himself, or the haunting devotion to his wife abundant on the closing cut, the words he writes and the goosebump-inducing manner in which he delivers them are a huge reason why You’ll Know it Was Me is such a unique and riveting listen. Sugars isn’t the only vocalist worth mentioning on the EP, as it turns out. He’s joined by some incredible talent—Colin Young of God’s Hate, Twitching Tongues and the Hardlore Podcast as well as Crystal Pak of Initiate and George Clarke of Deafheaven. Each of these vocalists lends an additional layer of unique intrigue—be it skin-rending intensity or breathtaking unease—to their respective songs, complementing and contrasting Sugars in a manner fitting of Church Tongue’s incredible dynamism.
If you didn’t know about Church Tongue—perhaps you were lead here after discovering another of one of the band member’s projects—now you know. An incredibly well tenured, but highly underrated band that serves heart-rending, gut-busting, spin-kicking metalcore on a scalding hot dish.
9/10
For Fans Of: Counterparts, Vamachara, Every Time I Die, Foreign Hands
By: Connor Welsh
