Boundaries
photo by Errick Easterday

CT metalcore band Boundaries discuss the music that influenced debut LP 'Your Receding Warmth'

Connecticut’s Boundaries have been leaving their mark on modern metalcore since their formation in 2015, and today they follow their first three EPs (including last year’s killer My Body In Bloom) with their first full-length, Your Receding Warmth, on Unbeaten Records (order yours). The album obviously owes a lot to late ’90s / early ’00s metalcore, but it also positions Boundaries as fresh new faces of the metalcore revival that birthed Code Orange, Knocked Loose, Vein, and a quickly-growing number of other great bands. (It was produced by Randy LeBoeuf, who also did the great new Chamber album that came out last month.) Boundaries know how to show off their atmospheric side and they work in some gothy clean vocals at times too, but for the most part, they favor blunt, forceful aggression and they do a lot of justice to that sound. Listen for yourself by streaming the album below.

To celebrate the album’s release, we caught up with four of the five members (everyone except drummer Kevin Stevens) to discuss the music that influenced them. Each member picked one album and described how it impacted their individual songwriting on this album, and you can read on for what they had to say…

THE MUSIC THAT INFLUENCED BOUNDARIES’ YOUR RECEDING WARMTH

Killing The Dream – In Place Apart (Matthew McDougal, vocals)

Killing The Dream is one of my favorite bands. I’ve been listening to all of their music for years but I found myself revisiting this record in particular during the time we were writing Your Receding Warmth. A lot of what draws me back to this band again and again is the singer, Elijah. His voice is so urgent; it has so much behind it that you believe every word he says is important, specific, and true. In Place Apart has real vulnerability in it and a track like “Four Years Too Late” that I’ve been listening to for ten years still gives me goosebumps. I knew I wanted to try and bring that level of expression and feeling to my voice and lyrics so that maybe I can make something that’s timeless for someone else out there, like this record is for me.

The Devil Wears Prada – Plagues (Junior Scarpa, guitar)

What really influenced my writing on Your Receding Warmth was Plagues by The Devil Wears Prada. That record just really hits home for me. It was the only thing that really got me through middles school/high school. It got me through the worst times and some of the best times of my life. I’ve always wanted to use influences from that record but honestly never really had the chance to do so. By the time I started playing in bands, that genre/sound was dying out, and no one wanted anything to do with it. But years go by and here I am – being able to be myself to my full potential, and using influences from a record that’s completely nostalgic to me.

Misery Signals – Of Malice and the Magnum Heart (Cory Emond, guitar)

Of Malice has always been an all time favorite for me but at the time of us writing Your Receding Warmth is when I watched the Yesterday Was Everything documentary for the first time. I had a much deeper connection with this record after watching and it was kind of all I was listening to at the time. I would watch the Rain City Sessions Malice X set while thinking of ideas for songs and watching them perform this record really opened up my abilities to create on my own.

David Wenngren/Library Tapes – Fragment (Zadak Brooks, bass)

In any other instance quite literally ever, I would be yelling about how Slipknot’s self-titled and Iowa were the sole reason I even thought about making music; but while recording Your Receding Warmth, Slipknot never left my car speaker. Fragment is a record full of classical piano and ambience that picks your brain and paints it on a canvas. The entire time at the studio was a really tough period in my life, as well as for other members of the band. Having this record with no words that can pull you into the void that is ‘stop being sad and figure your shit out’ really helped me figure out every bad emotion I had and helped me push them all out into a microphone until there was nothing left.

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