Album Review: The Plot In You

If it’s one thing you cannot fault Landon Tewers for, it’s his ethic and work rate. The frontman and driving force of metalcore institution The Plot In You definitely keeps himself busy with various side projects, ranging from dark spoken word pieces to upbeat acoustic songs. The evolution of The Plot In You, of which Tewers is also the man behind the guitar, drums and bass (in the studio at least) has been very interesting to track. Starting with more the straightforward, trend-following metalcore on the band’s first two records ‘First Born’ and ‘Could You Watch Your Children Burn?’, the group then ventured into more emotive, melodic and hook-driven territories on 2015’s ‘Happiness In Self Destruction’ and, in my opinion, was their best record at the time. Flash forward now to 2018, and the band is right on the verge of dropping their most sonically ambitious record to date, ‘Dispose’.

From the word go, subversive opener ‘Rigged’ sets the tone of the record perfectly. Heavy electronic percussion and samples drive this darker yet slightly poppier song along, with the guitars providing an extra kick as it reaches the second half, with Landon using a variety of vocal techniques along the way. ‘Not Just Breathing’ is where the fun really starts, with a hugely infectious chorus and melody that, while lacking a lot of lyrical content, is far from lacking in style. The verses are a lot more of a stripped back, moody affair, and the transition to the chorus works very well. ‘One Last Time’ feels very much like a track that belongs back on ‘Happiness In Self Destruction’, (2015) but it’s not bad by any stretch of the mind. Rather, maybe just slightly out of place. The bridge towards the end of the song is a real highlight, however. ‘I Always Wanted To Leave’ is one of my favourite songs on the tracklist, and it’s by far one of the most pop-oriented songs of the record. The verses see Landon using his higher vocal register for the most part, which adds something new to the mix, and to say he’s diverse would be a bit of an understatement. ‘Feel Nothing’ is an absolute banger, and while I hate using that word to describe any song, it just is a great song. The entire track is just so hooky and so memorable, if there was any justice in the world, this song would be the biggest thing ever.

After the album's mid-point interlude ‘Happy’, the second part of the record kicks off with ‘The One You Loved’, which to me screams Bring Me The Horizon circa ‘That’s The Spirit’, which is a compliment because that album still holds up well today after three years. This continues into ‘Paid In Full’, which is one of the more guitar-heavy tracks on the album, but does so without being overbearing. ‘The Sound’ is a much slower, melancholic track that, and in my opinion would've worked slightly better as the album closer purely for the way the song resolves compared to the actual closer, the still solid ‘Disposable Fix’.

This album is definitely a step in a bold new direction for this band, maybe not so much for Landon Tewers himself however. These songs definitely take a lot from his varied solo projects (though a band where you’re the chief songwriter and musician is technically a solo project in of itself) and less from previous The Plot In You releases. Certainly, there are flashes of the last album, ‘Happiness In Self Destruction’ on a few tracks such as the aforementioned ‘One Last Time’, but for the most part, this feels and sounds like a very fresh and exciting release. And honestly, I’ve come to really expect that from this band because I truly believe no two of their albums sound exactly alike, and 'Dispose' is absolutely the biggest, most interesting curveball of 'em all.

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If all goes well, this should be the record that truly shows everyone just how diverse and how staggeringly good of a songwriter Landon Tewers can be. In my humble opinion, this is easily the best thing The Plot In You have released thus far, and it should bring them a great deal of attention both within heavy music circles and far outside of the metalcore community too. It's more than deserved!