Striking artwork and a unique fusion of contemporary emo and classic pop punk – Free Mace captures his own artistic identity, with the proudly atmospheric and revealing new album Better Off Bitter.
To begin with, Free Mace envelops us in a spiralling downpour of repeating melodies and a relentless pace. The title track, Better Off Bitter is a haunting but hopeful earworm, introducing a chaotic pop-punk project with a twist of ambient design and self-reflections that are painfully honest.
The production is mildly hazy, and this quality stands taller still for Reality – a muggy dream-rock arrangement with that same cascading vocal aspect but a new call-and-response dynamic to light up the fresh guitar riffs at the forefront.
The energy is intense, but the mix is humble, creating an immersive listen yet one that would likely hit with all the more impact in a live venue. Always Free Mace delivers long-form stories that feel uninhibited and genuine – as well as some piercingly evocative guitar solos.
For Good Time Girl and the subsequently joyful-sounding highlight Upside Down, we clearly hear the modern emo rap influence in the vocal tone and flow. Free Mace effectively intertwines pop-punk and emo qualities from across the ages, throughout the vastness and storytelling of this project. It’s a rock and roll album on the one hand, but something far more intimate and individual on the other.
The anthemic vocal choir and explosive chorus of Of This World is another defiant highlight, and perhaps one of the most impactful and memorable arrangements from Free Mace to date. It’s an earworm, intentional and thoughtful, musically full and euphoric in blending the energy and reflections to a perfect chemistry.
A touch of colour and melody then guides us through the well-placed calmer but still fast-paced thoughts and riffs of the boldly relatable Another Year, Another Round. Then the hypnotic melodic thread and poetic ideas of Swift Fists inject a relentless hit of pure high-octane intensity.
“The album, Better off Bitter, comes from the nostalgic sounds of Warped Tour music with a reinvented perspective of mainstream music concepts.” – Free Mace.
Not the Beach Boys cover implied but its own mildly enchanting loop of possibility and hope, Wouldn’t It Be Nice again modestly softens the mood, before the unmistakable ferocity and engaging embrace of Failure By Design reaches straight for the emotional depths.
Wrapping up the complex human corners of this album is a fuzzy new-metal offering in the form of The Heretic. A sublime soundscape, arena-ready but contrasted by these more regimented rise-and-fall vocals – a little rap-like almost for one last twist of creative flair. It’s another story from the darker parts of the mind, and the music rightfully lays the table upon which listeners can really dive into these ideas.
Better Off Bitter emerged from a single set of feelings, but resulted as something vast and creatively unconfined. It’s an ode to simpler times, but it also rings loud as its own profoundly personal and honest relaying of feelings and experiences, and that balance is everything.
Find all things Free Mace. Read our interview with Free Mace about the album Better Off Bitter.
