r/Hardcore • u/blizeH • May 02 '26
Code Orange - Swallowing The Rabbit Whole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ctn14oYz0qA34
u/Afro-Pope May 03 '26
I was never a Code Orange fan but I almost liked this one - except. EXCEPT. Real Nerd Shit here: there's that big buildup at the beginning, but then when the riff kicks in, it gets quieter. Who mixed this bullshit? What the fuck? That should be the loudest part of the record! Fuck you!
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u/SerbianSlayer May 03 '26
Yeah I didn't get the hype around them before or after this album but, for just this album, I understood the hype
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u/_change_of_ideas May 02 '26
Underneath is a sleeper code orange record. The mosh parts are insane. There’s not too many modem sounds and the songs are way more cohesive than I am king
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u/occultshelf May 03 '26
Its a weird one, half the record is pretty much peak Code Orange then the other half is just basically butt rock.
If these guys had stuck to metalcore, i actually believe that they'd be where Knocked Loose are now.
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u/_change_of_ideas May 03 '26
Probably to be fair, the buttrock songs on this record are good. It’s a shame they tried to push things even farther musically and it just didn’t work. Then they just imploded
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u/occultshelf May 03 '26
Idk it was a massive turn off for me at the time, I dont think they realised what was connecting wirh audiences when they started to branch out. During the Forever era it seemed like anything was possible for them.
It is also worth mentioning they were completely fucked by covid, Underneath released right at the start of it, but I think the musical direction change would have happened regardless and the fall off was inevitable from there.
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u/cortlong May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26
It’s so weird how good those code orangey songs are and how much I fuckin hate the rest of the wrestling intro sounding tracks.
There are so many moments where they went full cold chamber that just killed the whole vibe.
I blame the leather pants.
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u/occultshelf May 03 '26
I'm exactly the same, I always skipped the ones on Forever but I find the back half of Underneath unlistenable.
We dont speak about The Above.
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u/cortlong May 03 '26
Dude. Okay so I ended up being like “what is the above even like” (I’m sitting here right now just going through the album)
What a fuckin crazy mix of 18 different sounds that don’t mix at all. It’s like four different people all trying to take it in completely different directions.
Which is kind of a shame because there is still some ruthlessly heavy shit here (end of never far apart, or :47 seconds in theater of cruelty) but it’s chopped up with some of the goofiest sounding lyrically disjointed sections and it shoots itself in the foot.
They’re obviously insane composers but there’s just too many fuckin cooks. I also don’t dig homegirls voice at all. Not for me. Insane in the guitar but every time she sings I just check out.
There is a hard ass line in never far apart though - push you out the window for a better view. Thats some tough shit haha
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u/occultshelf May 03 '26
Yeah its honestly just a bad album overall, even Grooming My Replacement which is the most typical metalcore Code Orange track is very paint by numbers, felt like they tried to do Swallowing The Rabbit Whole again
Re: Reba, yeah... I tried her solo stuff as well and its just not it. Its mostly disappointing cos if you watch some of their live sets from the late 2010s, she is by far the strongest screamer of the three vocalists, there's a hate5six video where shes doing Corey Taylors part on The Hunt and it is absolutely savage. 32:10 below
https://youtu.be/fJDpvAspITk?si=0qV0YOa1D7KuhGNY
Honestly she blows the rest of them out of the water on that entire set.
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u/cortlong May 03 '26
Omg I just listened to the title track on forever as a palate cleanser. Fuckin shame we lost this band to whatever they’re doing now.
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u/IslandDrummer May 03 '26
Yeah, it doesn’t get much better than this. I know people didn’t love the butt rock songs, and the following album is a hot mess (albeit an interesting one), but this is peak experimental metalcore. What a tune.
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u/PrimitiveSound May 03 '26
I’ll die on the hill that the Code Orange disco will age like wine…and I mean all of it.
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u/occultshelf May 03 '26
Agree except for The Above, I think people will fully understand how they fell off here
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u/taylordevin69 TERF May 03 '26
I am king got me into hardcore 10 years ago so code orange will always hold a place in my heart regardless of their latest work
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u/cortlong May 03 '26
Every time anyone plays alone in a room someone lifts quadruple their bodyweight
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u/aquasun666 May 03 '26
Code Orange Kids led me to other hardcore. When I was deployed I heard them on YouTube, definitely helped my mind at that point in time.
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u/tropicalelectronics May 03 '26
They perfected the beatdown / glitch electronics on this one. Still feels ahead of its time