I Am King

Code Orange, no longer kids, carved their second album’s name into their cover model’s forehead like that one guy did with the Slayer logo. Self-affirmation at its most extreme. Going heavier and more experimental than their debut, the band plays with new ways to inflict pain on I Am King. Elements of abrasive hardcore (Converge’s Kurt Ballou produces) and even nu-metal clash with shoegaze-y elements on standouts like “Dreams in Inertia” and “Slow Burn.” If the abrasive sounds of the nineties were gonna circle back around, at least the process got initiated by metal royalty like these folks.