TROPHY EYES - Suicide And Sunshine (LP)

Just like the title Suicide and Sunshine, Trophy Eyes' fourth album is about contrast. About light and dark. About beauty and tragedy. About the full spectrum of life, as told through the eyes of frontman John Floreani. "It's the human experience," says Floreani. "What we experience and how we navigate it. The millions of tiny flashes of light that are memories and thoughts and feelings and smells, all those little moments make up a lifetime. They're beautifully tragic because they don't mean anything to anyone, and on the scale of everything in the universe don't mean a damn thing. But it's so beautiful that they happen in the first place."

Floreani's willingness to dive so deeply into the most personal parts of his life is matched by the band's desire to explore the very boundaries of the hardcore genre. Alongside Floreani's impassioned vocals, drummer Blake Caruso's insistent rhythms, Jeremy Winchester's unflinching bass and the powerful guitars - handled by Floreani, producer Shane Edwards and former guitarist Andrew Hallett - the album is rich with anthemic hooks, dark modern pop ("My Inheritance"), electronic flourishes courtesy of co-producer Fletcher Matthews, and atmospheric, swirling synths ("Runaway Come Home" and "Sydney").

"When we did Chemical Miracle, our second full length, the logo for the album was a palm tree and a noose. That's literally suicide and sunshine. It's always been there on my mind. And I think I finally just phonetically set it out. That encompasses everything I've been trying to do my entire career."

For Fans Of: Neck Deep, The Story So Far, The Wonder Years