Formed back in 2016, Duress is a band from South Philadephia that has kept a steady stream of releases coming despite lineup changes. Currently signed to Barbaric Brutality (Snuffed on Sight, Restrictor Plate), the quintet dropped a 5-track self-titled EP in the final weeks of 2024 with the intent to showcase their mosh-friendly death metal.
"I would say our sound is a solid blend of death metal (mostly slam riffs but some OSDM in there too) and hardcore parts," Duress singer Jeremy tells No Echo. "I really waver from using the word deathcore because deathcore to me at least conveys a specific meaning. I guess, to me, 'MySpace Deathcore' is deathcore, if that makes sense?
"Personally, we are not really fans of that modern and overproduced sound, at least for our sound direction. It's funny, we actually started off with the goal of playing, like, downtempo deathcore/sludgewave (like Traitors and Black Tongue), tried writing a 'blackened beatdown' EP (this received so much online hate from purists) and then realized what we really wanted," laughs the vocalist.
"So, we had been sitting on some of these songs for a while actually, mainly the tracks 'Poison Pusher' and 'The Crushing Weight of Reality.' The other three we wrote over the course of spring/summer 2024. We really wanted to nail a cohesive mix of death metal and hardcore without straying too far into either. I think each of the five songs reflects that pretty well even though we got rejected from Metal Archives [laughs].
"We worked with our buddy Will Mellor at Red Water Recording down in south Philly. He did all of the tracking, mixing and mastering for us. We also had a guest spot from my friend Ryuji (RYZ) from this Japanese edge metal/H8000 band called Gates of Hopeless, please check them out, great guys and a great live show that I was lucky to see with my wife on our honeymoon."
In terms of 2025, Jeremy shares some of Duress' future plans: "We are going to start writing some new material and start hitting shows a lot in 2025. We also have a new side project, all the same members, called Kerygma. It's an '00s Christian metalcore-style band. So keep an eye out for that as well."
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Duress on social media: Instagram
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