Chasing Fridays: Balmora, smokedope2016, Quiet Light Q&A, more

No preamble this week, let's just get into it. I wrote about smokedope2016's long-awaited new album The Comedown, which dropped in conjunction with a U.S. tour announcement that's already almost entirely sold-out. Which means this is a guy rap fans have to think about, for better or worse. Then, I weighed in on Balmora's lineup change and the first taste of the metalcore revivalist's new record. I also wrote about deathcore torchbearers and one of the best heavy hardcore bands in the world right now. And finally, I interviewed Quiet Light, a Texas singer-songwriter who's about to drop a new mixtape that will probably launch her out of the cloud-rock/dream-pop underground. At least it should.

smokedope2016 - The Comedown

I don't know why smokedope2016 is so fascinating to me. I don't even like his music all that much, save for a handful of songs from his 2025 haul that I think are exemplary party-boy cloud-rap. I think my academic intrigue has more to do with how big he is now relative to how much media attention he's gotten (virtually none) despite his close proximity to other underground rap curios like Sematary, and despite his involvement in the hazy emo-rap renaissance alongside better (Ghost Mountain) and worse (Nokia Angel) artists making similar music. I think it's interesting that he's commanding such an intense zoomer fanbase doing a blend of sounds that, as his name implies, are only 10 years old, which probably makes him feel less vital to people who lived through that stuff initially and aren't yet ready for a nostalgic revisit. To kids who entered middle school after all the 2010s emo-rap touchstones had either died or fallen off, smokedope2016 offers something tangible for their generation to reach out and touch.

For almost a year now, the masked Virginia rapper has been teasing The Comedown, the third album in a thinly conceptual trilogy that began with 2024's The Comeup, climaxed artistically with 2025's The Peak, and concludes with an album about decline that arrives in conjunction with smokedope2016's career ascent. While this album offers very little in the way of musical enjoyment, it does provide a remarkably sad glimpse into the psyche of the world's pre-eminent post-Soundcloud emo rapper. smokedope2016 sounds absolutely miserable in that role, barely mustering the energy to boast about Forgiato rims and cups full of lean without his lifestyle flaunts feeling obligatory and blandly undetailed. The beats, which are mostly handled by his second-string producer Bartesianwater, are similarly sluggish and unmemorable, lacking the urgency and sticky-icky melodicism of his usual go-to beatmaker Lil Fitted Cap, who's responsible for all of smokedope's best songs ("In Da Party," "Back2Back," "Treehouse").

On his previous opuses, there was at least some semblance of tension between the cryptic frat-rap persona smokedope was trying to cultivate and the profoundly regular, if not inordinately downtrodden, dude behind the mask. On The Comedown, the perma-fried bro vibing on "good music, good clothing, and good Marley" has built up an impenetrable tolerance to his own highs, and what's left of his personality is someone who's psychologically incapable of enjoying the fruits of his own blow-up. In "Forgiato," he moans about being dopesick on tour, and in "Be My Zombie" he yearns for a girl who's "never sober" – maybe to help him forget that he rapped the inexcusably dorky line, "I got demons in my closet, yet it's full of shoes," a few bars later.

It's not that I don't believe smokedope's suffering is real, but since the anonymous MC offers so little detail about his backstory, his romantic entanglements, or his friends/enemies, it's hard to feel the weight of his pain. Each confession is an isolated smoke ring that he exhales in between poofier clouds of dirtbag stoner platitudes. In "Famous," he burns through a verse of trite weed flexes before he decides to peel back the veil of where his mind wanders once the final bong pack of the night has been torched. He's restless, anxious, riddled with an unshakeable sense of "impending doom" that dampens the joys of his budding rap stardom. "You can't imagine shit I'm goin' through," he warns – and he's right. We can't imagine because he never actually reveals the source of his agony. So why should we care?

In the album's washed-out finale, "Closing Time," one of the only songs on here crafted by loyal Clams Casino disciple Lil Fitted Cap, smokedope actually lets himself get vulnerable. Throughout a verse that feels like a genuine outpouring of pent-up anguish, he raps about missing the days when he was poor because "everything about it felt more real, I don't like my new story." He raps about growing up privileged but fucking it up doing "dumb shit," about hooping in the rain with dreams of being an athlete, about playing videogames to drown out his parents fighting, about not having "much to offer besides an attitude." He ends the vent sesh with a vague allusion to cutting people out of his life, and trills twice that he wishes he never met a mysterious "her."

By then, he's provided enough detail that your mind can fill in the rest. He's finally told a story. A harrowing account of comedown clarity. For once, we actually see the contours of a real person, not just the face-blurred figure stunting on Instagram. smokedope2016 sounds unmasked, unguarded, unraveled. And then the record ends. Too bad. It was just starting to get good.

Balmora - "Ophelia"

When I last checked in with Balmora, my favorite heavy hardcore band of the 2020s, I was talking with founding vocalist Chris "Senti" Misenti, who quietly left the band under mysterious circumstances a couple months back. Neither Balmora nor Senti, who runs Balmora's old label Ephyra Recordings, have publicly addressed his departure, but Balmora are playing this year's Ephyra-affiliated Hellfest in New Jersey, so I have to imagine they're on decent enough terms. Regardless, Balmora have replaced Senti in their lineup with Paul Cole of defunct Texas metalcore revivalists Since My Beloved, who notably released a split with Balmora back in 2024. Cole made his Balmora debut during their recent run of West Coast shows, and fans seemed pleased with his performances, but now we actually get to hear what new Balmora material sounds like without Senti on the mic.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by DAZE (@dazeofthefuturespast)

Earlier this week, the Connecticut band announced their long-awaited debut album, These Graven Halls (out May 29th via Daze), and teased the project with a new single called "Ophelia" that features Brie Percy of Holder, an apostle band of Balmora's whose recent come-up puts them on-pace to actually become the bigger of the two metalcore throwbackers. For now, though, Balmora are the top dogs in this milieu, and "Ophelia" is relieving confirmation that their lineup change hasn't affected the quality of their output one bit. All of the Balmora touchpoints are present in "Ophelia": galloping melodeath verses, a moody clean-strumming bridge, elegant metalcore leads, and several utterly punishing mosh parts that provide reassurance to anyone who worried they might soften with popularity, as virtually every metalcore band in history sadly has. Thankfully, Balmora haven't.

Another thing to be thankful for is Cole's performance as a frontman. Senti wasn't exactly a technically superb screamer; his throat-shredding highs always sounded weak live, while his sparingly used deathcore lows were his strong suit. However, what Senti lacked in musical prowess he made up for in charmingly scrappy style, which was central to the identity of the band. I'm happy to hear that although Cole is by all accounts a more powerful and expressive vocalist, he doesn't sound professional in the way most capital-"M" Metalcore singers do. His shrieking highs are closer to The Black Dahlia Murder's Trevor Strnad than Senti could ever get, while his lows are equally demonic, as exemplified during the sinister breakdown at the one-minute mark of "Ophelia." Vocalist switch-ups, though common in this world, can still be the death knell for a band like Balmora, but from all we can hear on "Ophelia," this group's frontman transition has been amazingly seamless.

Torn Open - "The Way Things Should End"

It's been a few months since I last checked in on the bustling old-school deathcore revival, so I figured Torn Open's new song would be a good excuse to pop by and see what's happening on that front. As I suspected, 2008 is still the year this wave of bands are time-traveling back to, whether it's Execution doing Continent-era Acacia Strain worship, or Torn Open doing their best rendition of Suicide Silence's peak years. The New Jersey band are the latest signings to Blue Grape Music, where they join everyone from Superheaven and Spiritual Cramp to Gridiron and Power Trip – so in other words, someone with money thinks Torn Open are a worthy investment, which means someone with money thinks 2008-era deathcore is a worthy investment. Because it is.

As I saw first-hand at the Psycho-Frame/Rev3erent show last December, this type of shit is extremely popular right now among zoomers in scene kid garb, and although Torn Open aren't actually that popular at this moment, I wouldn't be surprised if they're commanding big crowds by the year's end. Musically, there isn't anything all that new or innovative happening in "The Way Things Should End," but that's kind of the point. Bands like Torn Open are intentionally returning to the sound and vibe of deathcore's nascent years, before it became hyper-commercialized and gunked up with cheeseball midi symphonies.

The most compelling facet of Torn Open is that they're one of several hype bands in the scene right now, alongside Lilith's Demise and Slamwich, that are fronted by femmes. Deathcore might be one of the most dude-saturated metal sub-genres of the 21st century, which is why iwrestledabearonce were treated like such a novelty in their time simply for having a woman holding the mic. That sort of representation no longer feels like a novelty in the 2020s, when deathcore of this kind is more socially progressive than it's ever been, and a lot of the violent misogyny that plagued its first wave seems to be relegated to history. It's cool that Torn Open can just be a normal-ass deathcore band who happen to be fronted by a woman, and that no longer feels unusual. Plus, the more extreme metal about men being mutilated instead of women, the better.

Splitknuckle - "Lies They Hide Behind"

If a hardcore song makes me say "jesus fucking christ" aloud while I'm listening to it, then that's a good sign. During my first listen of Splitknuckle's "Lies They Hide Behind," I muttered "jesus fucking christ" to myself no less than three times. Ergo, I think this song is really fucking good. Splitknuckle are a hardcore band from the U.K. who dropped an LP on Daze a couple years back, Breathing Through the Wound, that ranked among my favorite HC releases of that year. As is my preference with this type of music, they hit that sweet spot between savage, smart, and stylish, and this new single they dropped last week is all of those things.

The way the first third of the song builds up with wailing feedback and hellish hiss vocals is a clever break from the usual beatdown form, but once they unleash the pressure valve and start chugging, it's just nonstop wreckage for two minutes straight. There are so many interesting groove patterns in this song that ensure your ear never gets bored, but I'm partial to the fake-out ending in the song's final gasp when they pause for a quick beat and then bring the carnage back at full jackhammering force. It goes without saying that this song will be murderous in front of the right crowd, and if Splitknuckle ever make it back to Pittsburgh, then I'll personally put my body on the line to do this track the justice it deserves.

Chasing Down

Riya Mahesh
of
Quiet Light

Chasing Down is a Q&A series with artists, friends, and others of good taste.

I've been following Quiet Light since her 2024 album Going Nowhere, which captured the Texas singer-producer's transition from Phoebe Bridgers-y indie-folk to cloud-rock of the Fine variety. Last year's Pure Hearts mini-album (and the track she contributed to the great Dal 2 compilation) found her lingering in an ambient dream-pop zone akin to Malibu, and the three singles she's released from her forthcoming mixtape, Blue Angel Sparkling Silver 2, are all over the place. They're also her best songs yet. "Postinternetfame" is fiberoptic trip-pop sung through bleating auto-tune; "Self Tape" is a motorik cruise that glistens like wet pavement steaming in the sunlight; and "Berlin" sounds like country pop by way of Copenhagen. Quiet Light sounds like she's truly coming into her own on these three stunners, making her forthcoming tape is one of my most anticipated of the season.

For this week's Chasing Down Q&A, I asked Quiet Light about how balancing medical school with music influences her art, her evolution from indie-folk to electro-pop, the headspace that informed her new mixtape, the best songs to listen to when it's blazing hot outside, and more. Read the full interview below.