American EBM virtuosos Youth Code have returned with their first musical output in four years: Yours, With Malice, officially released on Sumerian Records.
Nothing hits harder than life, as they say, and the series of bloody-knuckle bouts to get to the release of Yours, With Malice led to some deep introspection by Youth Code regarding who they are, what they’ve accomplished and their next steps. These last few years of self-reflection found Youth Code stewing in a simmering cauldron of bile and vitriol as Yours, With Malice is clearly their most intricate, well-crafted and blood-thirsty release to date.
Yours, With Malice roars and tramples like an armor-plated, weaponized bulldozer, pulverizing skulls into fine powder, while bubbling sub-bass, bone-snapping snare hits, sizzling hi-hats and rib-rattling kicks bounce off of the floors like spent shells. Sanford Parker’s powerful mix gives the effort a strong shove in the right direction– the subtle but careful ear for melody that connects all the songs, grounds them, and keeps the listener chained to the “repeat” button.
While some of the sounds and references on Yours… come from classic 90s influences such as Nine Inch Nails’ classic Broken/Fixed duality, the untouchable middle period Ministry era that spawned The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste, in addition to a plethora of others like Front 242, Cabaret Voltaire, and Portion Control, the core attack has not changed much for the Los Angeles-based duo.
What has changed is Youth Code’s attention to detail and their hyper focus on execution in songwriting, two things that can only come from the wellspring of knowledge found in a band that has been at it for more than a decade.
