Man, Calgary's FALL CITY FALL play a vicious take on hardcore, one that is more in line with pure raging bands like MODERN LIFE IS WAR than any kinda fashionable metalcore of today. Their Victory Records debut, Victus, is an absolutely frantic take on modern-day hardcore, heavy on the metallics but never metal, pure rage and emotion coming through every tune.

Really, much like Modern Life Is War, what sets these guys apart is that pure emotion that comes through, which is why I tracked down one of their vocalists (yup, they've got two), Nathan Zorn, to pick his brain a bit about what's going on here. Have these dudes been through extraordinary struggles and now they're yelping about it, or are they regular dudes with regular probs like the rest of us?

“I think what separates us from the norm is that what we are talking about are things that millions of people go through in life and feel that they don't have a voice to come forth about, or are ashamed or embarrassed,” says Zorn. “Keenan [Pylychaty, vocalist] and I come from very different and eventful paths in life up to this point and I am a firm believer that we all need to 'be the change you want to see in the world.' Our hope is that someone listening to this album can connect to it in some way that it helps them positively and maybe helps them overcome some of their own personal demons. It's kind of like we are trying to pay it forward. Or at least let people know that they are not alone.”

To me, Zorn and Pylychaty just sound deranged.

“(Laughs) Well, Keenan and I definitely had a lot going on at the time and throughout our whole lives in general,” says Zorn. “We just wanted to bring those issues to the table and come face to face with them. I hope the lyrical content stirs up something in the listener too.”

There are so many different and interesting ideas on the album, songs like 'Taken' or the title track unlike anything you're likely to hear on any other Victory release this year... or any hardcore release, for that matter.

“We knew that we wanted to really do something different with this album so we just had as much fun as we possibly could and enjoyed writing it, rather than stressing about it and trying to meet deadlines,” says Zorn on if this diversity was planned or natural. “Art is precious and your best work will always come when it is supposed to. Trust that.”

And now Zorn and the band will take that trust and their music out to the world, having crafted an album that they can feel truly proud of.

“When we went into writing this album, we really wanted to challenge ourselves and just try writing our feelings out, rather than, 'Yo, this is going to be the heaviest breakdown of all time, kids are going to mosh like crazy and we're gonna get so laid!'” says Zorn. “We just have a lot on our minds and in our hearts that we wanted to express through our music.”