Jawbone

Indiana four-piece Jawbone are creating a buzz with their debut seven-inch EP. Citing their main influences as Jane Doe-era Converge and the likes of Trap Them, Loss of Innocence is straight-cut hardcore, thick with driving guitars and lightning quick d-beat drumming. Despite a tinge of metallic influences, Loss of Innocence is an otherwise formulaic hardcore album, sticking to genre-specific conventions of switching between d-beat rhythms and drop tempo breaks. The album is vocal-heavy, relying on frontman Clint Vaught to carry the more abstract peaks of songs like "Faithless" and driving the general thematic Christian overtone to the foreground. Combining religious themes with a socio-political dynamic ("Murdering the innocent for the American dream"), the band's lyrics are the driving force of the album for distinctiveness. Jawbone stick close to what is palpable, creating a work of solid, no-nonsense hardcore with their debut release. Their extremes come from their lyrical content, and Vaught's gruff proclamations of religious ethos. There's a strong foundation for the four-piece that creates anticipation for where they'll go next.