Release Date May 1st, 2026
Format Digital/Cassette
Genre Mathcore, Hardcore, Screamo
Origin USA
Detach The Islands started in Brooklyn in 2016, led by drummer and lyricist Emmett Ceglia. After early demo material and the single "Phantom In The Frame", the band released "The Burden To Become Fact" in 2019, then returned in 2024 with "A Highly Magnified History". "Concrete Jungle" closes the Ashley Levine era and introduces the next version of the group, with Scot Moriarty joining the lineup.
"Concrete Jungle" is a restless EP with a lot thrown into a small package. It mixes new songs, covers, and reworked older material, so it plays more like a transition release than a fully shaped chapter. The energy is there, the anger is there, and the band has no interest in making this easy on the ears.
The music sits somewhere around mathcore, hardcore, screamo, and grindcore, with quick turns, nervous shifts, and a lot of discordant noise. When the EP clicks, it has a raw, desperate character that gives the songs some spark. The vocals sound cathartic and unfiltered, while the music jumps from frantic attacks to brief moments of release. Those calmer flashes help the EP escape becoming one long scrape across the skull.
The downside is the uneven format. Covers, older ideas, remixed material, and new songs together create energy, although they also make the EP sound scattered. Some parts come with real urgency, others pass by before they leave a mark. The lyrical themes, religion, politics, existential dread, and illness, give the release a heavier human core, even when the songs themselves do not always hit the same level.
"Concrete Jungle" is mainly for listeners already following Detach The Islands. Newcomers may get more from "A Highly Magnified History" first, since this EP is more like a bruised appendix to that era. It has fire, nerve, and a few sharp turns, along with a messy shape that holds it back. Decent, intense, uneven, and far from essential.
|6.0
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