THE PIT // LEVELS
This week’s The Pit feature is LEVELS.
We’ve had their newest album This Will Make You Feel Again playing nonstop this week and it honestly kept growing on us the more we sat with it. First listen you catch the heavy stuff right away, but after a while you start noticing all the little details underneath everything too. The electronics, the atmosphere, the cleaner vocal parts, the way some songs feel almost cold and mechanical before turning into complete chaos again.
What stands out the most though is that LEVELS actually sounds comfortable doing their own thing. A lot of bands try mixing metalcore with electronic elements and it ends up sounding forced or way too polished. This doesn’t. There’s still grit to it. Some of the songs feel anxious in the best way possible, like they’re barely holding together before exploding.
Going back through older releases like PULSE makes the newer material hit even harder too because you can hear the progression. They didn’t abandon their older sound, they just kept building on it. There’s still pieces of that heavier, rawer side mixed into everything they’re doing now.
Tracks like “SURRENDER” and “VISCERAL” have been stuck in rotation over here all week. “SURRENDER” has one of those choruses that gets burned into your head after a couple listens, while “VISCERAL” just feels straight up mean in parts.
You can hear influences in there from bands like Bring Me The Horizon, Bad Omens, and Northlane, but it never feels like they’re copying any of them. It still sounds like LEVELS at the end of the day, which is probably why they’ve been slowly building such a loyal following over the years.
Also gotta give respect to the grind behind the scenes too. These guys have spent years doing the DIY route, touring hard, and sharing stages with bands like Kittie, ERRA, Beartooth, and The Devil Wears Prada instead of just appearing out of nowhere overnight.
If you haven’t checked them out yet, this is your sign. Throw on This Will Make You Feel Again loud enough to annoy your neighbors and let it sink in for a while
Looking for more bands after this one? We’ve got a constantly growing Spotify playlist packed with 1000+ tracks ranging from underground heavy hitters to bigger names we can’t stop listening to. New songs get added all the time, so there’s always something new hiding in there.
Also keep an eye out every Wednesday for a new The Pit featured artist spotlight where we highlight bands we think deserve way more attention.
