SINGLE REVIEW: Advocates – “Choke” [2015]

Artist: Advocates 

“Choke” – Single

At first it’s delicious—it flows down your throat, across your tongue, washing away your taste buds with pure flavor. But before long, the sweetness becomes sour, bitterly transgressing into an acrid sting that ignites your esophagus. In minutes, your stomach feels like a furnace and your throat seems to have melted into a pile of organic mush. You try to hack up every ounce of the fluid you’ve ingested but you can’t: airways blocked, lungs wilting, you choke. The latest single by New Zealand metalcore Warriors Advocates begins much the same: a subtle introduction that quickly morphs into a malicious display of aggressive mastery that leaves the listener gasping for breath, yet getting none.

Evolving exponentially from the sound on their debut EP, Mindless, Advocates trade in chunky, plodding chug-ridden riffs for lacerating, skin-shredding grooves that flow from quick and pummeling to low, slow and pulverizing before you can say “breakdown.” Ten-ton grooves slam into the listener’s skull like tidal waves made of sledge hammers, pulverizing the listener with precision and remorseless anger. Beefy, bold drumming serves as a fluid foundation for the band’s furious fretwork—with added heft from a lumbering, luscious bass tone. This, in itself, isn’t markedly different from Advocates’ work on Mindless. What is an enormous step forward, however, are the vocals. A jarring blend of sinister screams and hoarse shouts, “Choke” rips the flesh from the listener’s throat. Replacing it with coarse sandpaper l. While only a brief offering from a band that has been silent for years, “Choke” is a heart-stopping, breath-stealing display of promise for what’s to come.

4.5/5

For Fans Of: Barrier, Structures, Texas in July, I, The Breather

By: Connor Welsh