New Band of the Week: ICANTDIE

South Wales band ICANTDIE offer up a post-hardcore sound that’s both heavy and accessible that they like to summarise as “chaotic, heavy, loud, frenetic, energetic and dark.”

The Bridgend band’s foundations started out when frontman Kyle Smith’s former project came to an end. As Kyle tells us: “I spent nearly a year in my room working on demos to try and make a project that focused on more of the genres I wanted to try but never got the chance to. This would lead to hiring musicians, funding creation content myself, releasing a debut EP and even getting a first gig.”

The debut EP, Transition/Merger, saw Kyle work with Gav Burrough (from fellow Bridgend band Funeral For A Friend), who provided production, guitars, bass and vocals. It also elicited a positive response, which led to Adam Kerslake (drums) and Sam Bennet (bass) completing the lineup. The trio worked on second EP doppelgänger which, in Kyle’s words, saw “the band really come into its own and solidified what we’re all about” with a sound that Adam describes as “heavy with a hint of chaos.”

We first spoke to the trio ahead of their excellent third EP Errors, which was released in November. On the EP, Adam told us: “It’s taken a long time for us to get to this point. We’ve been working hard all year recording. Expect loads of riffs and hard-hitting beats!”

And Kyle added: “Errors was a huge project for me lyrically mentally. It kind of wraps up a story of a creative trait we’ve been known for. In the past, we’ve have had a few songs where the titles are Nouns ending with the letters ‘er.’ I never noticed it but all those songs seemed to be about myself and my mental health.

“So this EP wraps up that trait and goes fully into it. Bringing a sort of scary side to it. The songs are lyrically the most challenging too. I’ve really come out of my comfort zone to mention some moments where my head has gone the darkest but it’s masked with the heaviest and craziest riffs we’ve done.”

The EP opens up in a pretty laid-back fashion with Hater, which starts out with a light guitar lick and mellow vocals. Drums creep in and the vocals intensify, building to vicious screams and heavy guitars that feed into a big driving riff and big screamed vocals to bring the track to a lively end.

That’s followed by Follower, which launches straight into heavy vocals and lyrically focuses on Kyle’s experience streaming on Twitch. Halfway through, a section of high-pitched guitars and driving drums drop into more laid-back instrumentals, which eventually set up a heavy outro. Check out in the illustrated lyric video here:

Next up is Teaser, which opens up with a chugging guitar riff that tees up a delicious bouncy riff under an intense scream. A lively chorus feeds into a cool chorus with stabbing guitars that flows into clean vocals answered by more screams before another deliciously chunky riff. Check it out in the video here:

The EP keeps on delivering with the excellent Vaunter, which slowly builds to a stabbing riff under engaging vocals. Then final track Reaper opens up with a cool riff and big shouty vocals that flow into a series of interesting riffs, and ends with cool fast section that begins with the spoken line “Oh no, Lost the plot, Put him in a coffin and watch him rot.”

There’s plenty more music to get stuck into, including the 2020 single Counter on which they collaborated with Sean Smith from fellow Welsh band and our former NBOTW Raiders.

The ICANTDIE sound has been influenced by post-hardcore bands like Every Time I Die, Dillinger Escape Plan, Billy Talent, Cancer Bats and Frank Carter to the melodic inspirations of Muse and Biffy Clyro.

And on what inspires them to write music, Kyle tells us: “Mostly life. With ICD there’s a lot of moments that can make you angry, sad, crazy. When I write, I kind of want to bring a celebration of those negative emotions. Not like they are good things, it’s like if a Disney villain comes in and introduces him/her/themselves with a song! It’s always weird and chaotic like ‘I’m here to start trouble!’ That inspires me a lot. But it’s more fun in a heavy band!”

There’s plenty more to come from ICANTDIE, including gigs, tours and festivals, with new merch designs and potentially going back into the studio to, in Kyle’s words, “do a fun cover to promote the EP even more.”

You can follow ICANTDIE on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp and YouTube.