Cโmon buttโฆ are you ready to feel things you werenโt prepared to feel during a breakdown? ๐ตโ๐ซ๐
Because Loathe doesnโt just punch you in the chest โ they cradle your broken soul, drag it through a haunted industrial wasteland, and leave you sobbing in slow motion to the sound of your own heartbeat.
From downtuned devastation to shoegaze serenity, Loathe are genre shapeshifters โ like if Deftones, Code Orange, and Blade Runner had a lovechild and raised it on despair, ambience, and menace.
Theyโre as much about emotion as they are about eruption. This is music for the end times and the introspective come-down that follows. ๐ฉธ๐ง ๐ฅ
๐ซ๏ธ WHO THE HELL ARE LOATHE?
Genre: Experimental Metal / Alt-Metal / Post-Hardcore / Shoegaze / Doomgaze / Violence & Vulnerability
From: Liverpool, UK ๐ฌ๐ง
Formed: 2014
Known For: Being heavy, ethereal, weird, wonderful, and totally unlabelable.
Imagine slipknot-level anger one second and My Bloody Valentine levels of dreaminess the next โ thatโs Loathe.
๐ค THE SHADOWY UNIT OF DOOM & DELICACY
- Kadeem France โ Vocals / The roar. The wrath. The beast within.
- Erik Bickerstaffe โ Guitar + Clean Vocals / The whisper. The wail. The dreamer.
- Sean Radcliffe โ Drums / Groove ninja meets noise merchant
- Feisal El-Khazragi โ Bass / The bottom end that rumbles like a broken city
- Connor Sweeney โ Former guitarist / Left in 2021 but helped shape the early sonic madness
Their dual-vocal style is the secret weapon โ rage + reflection in perfect sync. One screams at the void, the other sings it to sleep.
๐ฟ LOATHE DISCOGRAPHY โ THE SOUNDTRACK TO YOUR INNER MELTDOWN
โ ๏ธ Prepare Consume Proceed (EP, 2015)
๐ง In Death, Despondent
Vibe: Raw metalcore. First mutation. You can already hear the seeds of doom.
Chaotic, guttural, and pissed off at everything.
๐จ The Cold Sun (2017)
๐ง Dance on My Skin, Itโs Yours, East of Eden
Vibe: Bleak, futuristic, jagged. A concept album wrapped in barbed wire.
Industrial meets post-hardcore meets metalcore breakdowns that grind your face into the tarmac.
This is the โBlack Mirrorโ of metal albums.
๐ค I Let It In and It Took Everything (2020)
๐ง Two-Way Mirror, New Faces in the Dark, Screaming, Gored
Vibe: A masterpiece. Their magnum opus. The sound of breaking down beautifully.
Shoegaze + post-metal + deathcore + sadness + soaring ambient guitar walls.
Sounds like Deftones in mourning.
TWO-WAY MIRROR especially?
๐โ๐จ Sadboi anthem of the decade.
๐ซ๏ธ The Things They Believe (2021 โ Instrumental/Ambient Album)
๐ง 2110, Donโt Get Hurt
Vibe: Haunting. Minimalist. More atmosphere than riffs.
Soundtrack to your dreamlike breakdown at 3am.
They literally released a soundtrack to grief, healing, and space.
๐ง THE RIFF REPORTโS LOATHE ESSENTIAL LISTENING
๐ฉธ New Faces in the Dark โ Groove metalcore meets fury
๐ค Two-Way Mirror โ Gothic dream-pop for metalheads. Fragile. Gorgeous.
๐งฑ Gored โ Disgustingly heavy. Bassline thatโll rupture your bones.
๐ Screaming โ A duet of beauty and rage. Essential Loathe duality.
๐ Is It Really You? (Live collab w/ Alpha Wolf) โ If a mosh pit cried.
๐ WHY LOATHE ARE FLIPPING THE METAL SCRIPT
Because they:
- Refuse to be pinned to one genre.
- Bring both emotional intelligence and riff brutality.
- ***Are genuinely experimental without sounding like try-hards.
- Give Deftones energy but keep it 100% Scouse and savage.
- Feel modern, urgent, and alien all at once.
- Make vulnerability feel HEAVY.
In a world of predictable breakdowns and screamo clichรฉs โ Loathe are the glitch in the system.
๐งจ LIVE SHOWS โ CHAOTIC, CATHARTIC & A LITTLE POSSESSED
Seeing Loathe live is like:
- Watching serenity turn into a riot.
- Witnessing a slow dance erupt into a bar brawl.
- One second youโre swaying with your eyes closed, the next youโre punching the floor.
- Will they scream? Will they whisper? Will your spine survive the bass drop?
The lighting, the atmosphere, the mood โ itโs post-metal theatre. With riffs.
๐ค FINAL VERDICT FROM THE RIFF REPORT:
Loathe are the future โ but also the collapse, the dream, the nightmare, and the resurrection.
They donโt just play songs โ they create emotional weather systems.
You donโt just hear them โ you feel them in your jaw, in your gut, and in your bloody soul.
Want music that makes you mosh AND meditate?
Want a sonic purge with beauty baked in?
Want to cry in the pit and thank the band for it?
Then LET IT IN. LET LOATHE IN.
๐ค The Riff Report is floating in a fog of feedback, holding its heart, screaming into the void:
LOATHE โ TO HURT, TO HEAL, TO DESTROY. TO FEEL.
Let the mirror crack, and see who you really are.
