EP Review: Youth Code – Yours, With Malice (Sumerian Records)

EBM icons Youth Code return with their brand-new EP ‘Yours, With Malice’, their first new music in four years. Dropping on 16th May via their new label home Sumerian Records, the EP is the result of an extended period of self-reflection.

One of the most unique bands out there, Youth Code have always challenged musical norms and been impossible to place in a genre, yet this new record pushes that summation even further with a new sonic style and evolved state that makes this a record like nothing else, even if the sum of its parts are familiar.

Beginning with a captivating slice of industrialised intensity, No Consequence is the first showcase of their artistic growth, truly memorable for the thick vein of tension that runs through its noisy structure. However, if you really want to feel discomfort in aural form, the dangerous and dark vibes of Wishing Well will deliver. The rough and raw effects is one thing, but the vocals and how they are delivered in scathing style, is another.

Spectacular, and polarising, but that’s Youth Code for you. They challenge like no-one else and love it or hate it, you will remember it. Especially when it comes with hyperactive and dramatically tinged ‘danceable’ efforts like In Search of Tomorrow or dystopian slices of vivid intensity like Make Sense.

There really is nothing like this bloody band, and just to put the exclamation point on that statement, the EP ends with the heart-racing and angry sound of I’m Sorry. It is an EP with vitriolic intensity throughout, but here at the end, it just feels even more venomous.

Youth Code – Yours, With Malice Track Listing:

1. No Consequence
2. Wishing Well
3. In Search of Tomorrow
4. Make Sense
5. I’m Sorry

Links

Facebook | X | Instagram | TikTok | Spotify | Apple Music