With an album titled after frontman, Bryan Garris’s fear of flying and facing his own mortality. It is only fitting that Knocked Loose leaves you on edge with their new, 3rd full length album, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To. Instead of slamming bedroom doors or knocking over bottles on the kitchen counter, the poltergeist of a band leaves you haunted with Garris’s unmistakable vocals and battering riffs that signal impending doom to the listener.
In the spirit of ghosts, the intro to the first song on the album “Thirst”, listeners hear an ominous clang of a bell, almost to let the listener know the ritual is about to take place. It holds all the trademark characteristics of a Knocked Loose song: intense vocals and pulse pounding beat, lending itself to build a solid foundation for the album. The second song “Piece By Piece” features strong backing vocals that can only be categorized as feral growls. These new stylized pieces add depth and enhance Garris’ iconic callouts.
Solo artist, Poppy, has become one of the most sought after vocal features as of late in the metal community, and it’s no surprise that she has made it onto the third track, “Suffocate”. The feature does not disappoint, with Poppy offering her eerie spoken word and itch scratching screams alongside Garris’s already strong vocals.
Prior to the album release Knocked Loose released three singles for this album, the second of the three, “Don’t Reach For Me”, gives fans a security blanket, showing signs with it’s composition that it could be siblings with the song “Belleville” from their 2021 album A Different Shade of Blue. After that, you are hit with only forty-five seconds of pure adrenaline called, “Moss Covers All”, which is cut at the halfway point by a brain itching guitar riffs that will stick in the back of your head. So much so that it inspires the intro to the next track titled, “Take Me Home.” The first minute or so of the song is unlike anything else Knocked Loose has put out; it’s gritty and raw, letting the instruments, and at times, lack of instruments, speak for themselves, leaving the listener on edge throughout the song. For as nerve wracking as the song is, it ends with rendition of a “happy trails” style song, sending the listener off with a hug and a kiss, unbeknownst to what comes next.
“Slaughterhouse 2 (ft. Chris Motionless)” was not only the most talked about song when the tracklist dropped, but had fans fantasizing about the sound of it and if the duo of Knocked Loose and Chris Motionless could pull off yet another iconic collaboration. I would simply describe this song as “Slaughterhouse 2 (Knocked Loose’s Version)” for all the Swifties out there. It takes the same bones of the first song and breaks them, in true Knocked Loose fashion, and then fuses them into a song that is stylistically Knocked Loose. Fans will surely appreciate lyric callouts to the predecessor with iconic lines such as “one mutilation under God” and “eye for an eye”.
“The Calm That Keeps You Awake” welcomes you in with a Korn stylized intro that ends with Garris calling out to the listener, leading them to move to a beat that beckons pits to open, and chaos to ensue. This song fades into the first single from the album titled, “Blinding Faith” which if fans listened to, they would know that this song truly set the expectation high for the album release: fans immediately being captivated the moment the high energy single dropped.
The final song of, You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To, is unlike any other song Knocked Loose has put out. “Sit & Mourn” musically explores a, dare to say, softer side of Knocked Loose. The four minute and forty-seven second song (the longest song in their discography to date), evokes emotions I didn’t know Knocked Loose could and is beautifully composed down to the last second. The vocals that usually carry crowd moving anthems, cry out almost like a confessional, seeming like a question of faith, for both the band and for Garris himself.
Overall, this album seamlessly blends into the band’s already stacked discography, which is a docking point in this review. Knocked Loose knows what they do well, what the fans want, and they push the stylized boundary line just far enough to bring in new fans but also retain their existing ones. While it may be a smart play, they could have pushed the envelope further by playing with styles found in “Take Me Home” and “Sit & Mourn.”
Rating: 8.0/10
