A couple of years ago, the Ontario metalcore band Counterparts released the majestic and brutal LP You’re Not You Anymore, and it was one of our favorite albums of 2017. Last year, they followed it up with the three-song EP Private Room, and our own Michael Nelson pretty much flipped his shit for it. So it’s great to be able to report that Counterparts are coming back this fall with a new full-length called Nothing Left To Love, their sixth. And it’s also nice to report that the first single is a ripper.

In true Counterparts fashion, new joint “Wings Of Nightmares” oscillates wildly between scrape-gnash hardcore aggression and soaring, melodic hooks. There’s also a real neck-snapper of a breakdown near the end. Counterparts’ whole aesthetic is a lot cleaner and more produced than a lot of the hardcore bands we post on this site; the sheen on their sound reminds me more of Swedish death metal than it does North American Bandcamp hardcore. But that sound does not prevent them from kicking hard.

“Wings Of Nightmares” is a song about post-breakup depression and resentment, rendered in dramatic fashion: “Keep your distance from the flowers that will decorate my corpse / Undeserving of a chance to watch them thrive / Remove the sickness before it has a chance to run its course / I knew we’d never make it out alive.” It comes with a video full of grainy, sweaty footage of Counterparts’ live show. Below, check out the video and the new album’s tracklist.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Love Me”
02 “Wings of Nightmares”
03 “Paradise And Plague”
04 “The Hands That Used To Hold Me”
05 “Separate Wounds”
06 “Your Own Knife”
07 “Cherished”
08 “Imprints”
09 “Ocean Of Another”
10 “Nothing Left To Love”

Nothing Left To Love is out 11/1 on Pure Noise Records. Pre-order it here.