Please feel free to shame me as before the excellent EP You’ll Know It Was Me, I had not been privy to the midwest juggernaut that is Church Tongue. This is END meets Misery Signals metalcore in all the right ways to tickle all the right fancies. Most notably, guitarist Nicko Calderon also calls Knocked Loose home and it was therein that I knew it was worth giving this record a shot. I am glad I did and I am also glad that despite those connections, Church Tongue have crafted a lane for themselves.

Per the band’s press release, You’ll Know It Was Me lyrically follows a concept/theme of love and all of the forms in which that emotion can exist. “Heart of Darkness” wastes no time in divulging the path we are going to take with Church Tongue. The push and pull of two step riffage intermingles with the face crunching breakdowns that begin a mere 40 seconds into the track. The carnage continues while your attention span is satiated by the mid tempo to ultimate breakdown as singer Mike Sugars give us his best Mean Pete (RIP) with the final line, “I don’t hear a single fucking thing”.

Wasting zero time (both between tracks and with the runtime itself), “One Hand Wrapped Around the Sun” launches into a frenzied attack of dissonant guitars and lyrics of love in the form of telling that parasite “friend” to pack their shit and fucking leave. Sure to cause either a stage pile on or a 20 car pile up, peep the words

It’s all so fucking simple/My vengeance is done/Forget you exist/One last kindness: forget you exist

The first of three spectacular guest spots belongs to Twitching Tongue/God’s Hate/Deadbody/Holy Blade/Hardlore podcast and all around savant, Colin Young. His vocal stylings add a unique and interesting soundscape to the persistent chaos that Church Tongue exudes. I feel that “When It Betrays” seems to want to teeter on full collapse into a black hole but Church Tongue finds a way to bring it back around and leave you with a consistent sense of 😮‍💨. Lyrically, this song is Mike Sugars’ love letter to his relatively newfound sobriety and the pains it has taken him to shed the old skin and live anew. As someone who has also been struggling with that concept, I feel a strong sense of attraction to these lyrics.

I reject my infection/A curse, a familiar deception/I will be the sword forged by the love I swore

“The Fury of Love” is Church Tongue at their most Converge and I am fucking here for it. Feeling in no small way as an homage to “Plagues” from No Heroes, Church Tongue weaves a hypnotic trance with the opening riff that chugs along for almost a minute and a half before any vocals make their appearance. The snap of the fingers to break the spell is swift and merciless as the pace is picked up. The hardest part of this song is undoubtedly when it’s just bass, drums, and tortured screams. That is, until the table is set for our second guest, Crystal Pak of Initiate. She grabs your attention instantly and doesn’t let go until the final nail is in the coffin.

“Bury Me (One Thousand Times)” is absolutely where I hear inspiration from END and Mr. Will Putney. The opening riff layered with blast beats is so fucking killer and leads perfectly into the maelstrom of the verse. Even the moments of slight feedback are perfectly placed in this song. It’s rare that you’re given a moment to take a breath during You’ll Know It Was Me, but we get one such brief instance just before midway through the song. And then it’s back on the tilt-a-whirl for more punishment.

It truly wouldn’t surprise me if title track, “You’ll Know It Was Me”, was specifically tailored to the third and final guest on the EP, Deafheaven’s George Clarke. From the clean, brooding opening guitar lines that build and build and build into a fucking feeding frenzy spiraling into the ether only to land back into the clean guitars only then to descend into the nastiest blast beats and fevered strumming, this feels like a home George would be comfortable in. As the band admits that George was the first guest to be asked to contribute, I feel like I’m on to something (Church Heaven? Deaftongue?). Whatever the reasoning, THIS is how the fuck you end a record. It’s haunting, it’s visceral, and it’s disturbing. Notably, lyrically, as Sugars points out this is a love letter to his wife explaining that if he dies before her, he will haunt her forever. A sentiment I’ve certainly shared with my wife. True fucking love.

I am in love with this EP and have hate for not knowing of this band before. I am thankful that I found them here with You’ll Know It Was Me because as their latest output, Church Tongue has gained a fan in me who will anticipate what else they have to offer in the future.

• Fav song: “You’ll Know It Was Me”

FFO: metalcore, dissonance, breakdowns, buckeyes, love

Follow this fucking link to listen and while you’re there, fucking buy something from the band:

https://churchtongueband.bandcamp.com/

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