Band: Snooze | Album: I Know How You Will Die | Genre: Math rock, Progressive metal | Year: 2025
From: Chicago, USA | Label: Choke Artist
For fans of: Between the Buried and Me, Tera Melos, And So I Watch You From Afar, Emberside
I’ve been pretty open about my general distaste for subgenres that end in “-core.” And that goes double for most things classifiable as djent. So, had I not had this album specifically recommended to me, I probably would have skipped it had I found it on my own on Bandcamp. “Mathcore” and “djent” are usually good signs I’ll find a record tedious and repetitious. There are outliers, of course, but I do do some prioritization of stuff to listen to in looking for records for this site.
I am very happy I had this album recommended to me. Snooze is a Chicago-based quartet that plays a pretty heavy variety of math rock. I Know How You Will Die is their third full-length release and their first in six years. It’s also their heaviest by a significant margin. The band’s roots in math rock and Midwest emo are evident, especially in the vocal lines, but everything comes together in an incredibly satisfying way.
The album starts off with a fittingly-creepy intro. “I Existed” fades in with ethereal wordless vocals that have a haunting and unsettling quality about them. An orchestra eventually comes up from underneath, lending it a truly strange air as it surges to an uneasy climax. Emerging from this is the quiet opening of “Expectation”, consisting of subdued vocals and intricate acoustic guitar arrangements. This passage channels folk influences for a feeling of vulnerability and sincerity. As the song explodes into crushing metal, there is some cautious warmth amidst the raw aggression. The band takes another wild left turn by incorporating a really fun and groovy a capella passage of more wordless syllables. For a sub-five-minute song, this piece covers a lot of ground but still manages to be coherent.
“Harked” pulls in some hardcore and black metal influences in some blistering moments. The vocals are purposefully distorted, the audio clipping into static to truly drive home the intensity. The backing instrumental is herky-jerky, weaving stuttering riffs amid more uplifting lead guitar lines. This bleeds directly into “Wicked”. Indie rock touches are evident in the vocal melody, but the wild and buzzy guitar lines reveal this band’s incredible skill. The inclusion of a choir was an inspired decision, too, lending a sense of majesty.
The band dips back into extreme metal at moments on “A Mysterious Voice” while still balancing it with their usual melodicism and multiparted vocal arrangements. This song’s climax is an especially enthralling mix of chaos and beauty, with the vocals and guitars melding together into a fuzzy wall.
“On a Superposition” has a tumbling, syncopated feel that evokes the feeling of one thing quickly being placed in front of another. Snooze’s usual maximalism continues here, but it is paired against some simpler, more stripped back moments for some much-appreciated textural contrast. The guitars slide and wriggle over one another in a tangled web; it makes repeated listens especially rewarding to pick the arrangement apart. This song concludes with a riff that sounds like it’s straight off a (good) Dream Theater record.
“Overheard from the Void” has one of the djentiest riffs on the album. It snarls and barks at the low end of the guitars’ register as clean vocals and lead guitars soar over it.
The riffs speed back up on “Contingent”, but they’re no less virtuosic. I need to again compliment the vocal arrangements here. I really appreciate all the effort and attention to detail that went into fleshing this sound out. Things momentarily quiet down around the midpoint, but rather Porcupine Tree-ish interplay acts as a segue back to extreme metal elements.
This power continues with some very BTBAM-ish riffing on “I Listened”. Palm-muted guitars lash like whips during relatively restrained passages. The clean vocals even remind me of Tommy Giles at moments. Considering BTBAM began as a metalcore band, some shared DNA makes sense.
The album’s title track features more stuttering, start-stop guitar lines beneath beautifully interwoven vocal lines in its opening. Moving further into this composition, this piece is more firmly rooted in math rock than most of the rest of the album. Metallic elements are obviously there, but where most of this record has been prog metal with math rock influences, this cut inverts that relationship. The mood shifts into something eerie, evoking this album’s opening in its final two minutes. The atmosphere builds and becomes oppressive as more guitars are layered on top of one another.
“On a Precipice” begins relatively quietly. Bass and drums thump out an oddball groove as relatively subdued vocals float overhead. Tension builds and eventually crests in a satisfying way, and I really like the wiry twanginess of many of the stringed instruments here. It’s a nice contrast to the usual overpowering wall of distortion and sharp, soaring embellishments.
“Wondered” continues with some wonderfully wiry and snappy guitar tones. This is another point where Snooze’s math rock roots really show themselves. Things jump around the fretboard, and the rhythm is unpredictable and satisfying. The vocals swell and fall in natural undulations, complementing the jumpier guitar parts. Things close out rather quietly, with jangly clean guitars leading into the brief, album-closing “Until”. Acoustic guitar, banjo, and barely-discernible vocals give this record a homey, comforting conclusion.
Snooze’s newest album is a big and complex statement. The music is mostly quite intense with very few breaks. Despite that, things remain engaging throughout. The denseness of the musical arrangements make this a prime candidate for repeated listens, as new discoveries are lurking behind every note. I Know How You Will Die is absolutely going to wind up near the top of my best of 2025 list, and this one is worth your time even if you’re not usually into this sort of music.
Score: 93/100
The Elite Extremophile 