She may not be as violent in person as in lyrics such as “And wash your blood down the sink, cause we don’t keep souvenirs,” but Djamila Boden Azzouz, the singer with UK metalcore ragers Ithaca, is nevertheless taking no prisoners. “This record shows such a level of creativity and finesse that a lot of people who make the kind of music that we make are just not on our level,” declares the singer on a video call from her Berlin home. “A fact’s a fact.”
And indeed, she has every right to boast. Ithaca released their first album, The Language of Injury, in 2019, and received acclaim for the way they peppered jagged hardcore with crooning melodies. They Fear Us is a juggernaut of a follow-up, the most ambitious and charismatic punk/metal album of the year so far, which adds near-shoegaze levels of luminescence to the mix without compromising the band’s heaviness and attitude.
