Emo revival, more like emo time travel! {I Promised The World - New band spotlight 1#}

Scrolling through my YouTube home page again. huh. Is Rise Records is re-uploading old band videos, or is this video new and in 240p?? I am shocked. And so I enter the world of I Promised The World, a metalcore band from Texas that formed in 2023 under the name Sinema. 

My first impression of this band was, well confused. Your telling me this band formed 2 years ago and this music video is not only in awful quality, it's filmed in the white void formerly occupied by Medusa'Scream and Thursday about 20 years ago. And not only is the music video old school, the sound is unlike anything I've heard from any metalcore acts since Aaron left Underoath (2010, for my non-Underoath heads out there). I Promised The World are reminiscent of just about every metal band from the 2000s - From Autumn To Ashes, Haste The Day, Misery Signals, Poison The Well... ect ect, just look in the comment sections of their mvs to see about a hundred more comparisons. Oh you thought the nostalgia left there? You are very wrong. 

how is this not a 2001 album?!

The cover of their upcoming EP - I Promised The World, January 16th on Rise Records - is nostalgia central. For my 00s graphic design fanatics (Finny this one is 4 u), you know why this just feels like 2001. The font for starters is nothing fancy - it's an all caps rounded sans-serif, reminiscent of The Changing of Times by Underoath or Full Collapse by Thursday (I can't help it c'mon). It's a simple choice yet perfectly captures exactly what the band is going for, unlike a lot of modern album covers that look like a graphic designer did all the work and the band just nodded in agreement. Another bit of design that makes this cover 00s perfection is the grainy distressed filter on the whole thing, reminding me of the cover of I Am The Movie by Motion City Soundtrack or Don't Hold On to What You Hear by Hometown Anthem. 

 So, what's the verdict? Am I down with nostalgia-core or do I wish the 00s would stay where it is? Ok, it's clear I'm totally on board with this, I mean I love other nostalgic acts like After so for me I Promised The World are a slam-dunk. What I will say is this though, I hope their new EP brings something a little more than just nostalgia to the table, it would be cool to see how they can diversify their sound beyond just 00s metalcore. Any thoughts on I Promised The World? let me know in the comments :)