Written by: Haley Sousa (Twitter: @hal3yanne)

After releasing four singles in promotion of their new album, Out of Control, Gideon finally dropped their fourth LP on October 11, 2019. This album is unlike anything we’ve heard from Gideon before. It’s still raw and angry, but it brings in so many new elements that changed their sound while sticking to their roots.

If there was an album for Gideon to break out in the scene, it’s this one. Their fourth studio album was very highly anticipated in the hardcore scene this year. Gideon made a name for themselves with Cold in 2017, but it’s clear in this album that they wanted to explore new territory while keeping the raw emotion and anger, a critical element to Gideon’s music.

I think what makes Gideon, Gideon, is their ability to incorporate the angriest, grittiest grooves into hardcore music. This album has no shortage of amazing beats and grooves that are perfect two-step material, however, they definitely stepped out of their comfort zone in a majority of their tracks such as OUTLAW where they definitely exposed their metalcore influences. Instrumentally, this album, as a whole, redefines who Gideon is; it’s evident that they’ve grown as a band, even since the release of “No Love/No One” and “2 Deep” earlier this year. Out of Control definitely pulls a ton of influence from hip hop music. Between the synth, slight “hardcore” rapping at some points during the album especially in SLEEP and BITE DOWN it almost seems that Gideon is creating their own genre: nu-hardcore. If Gideon was trying to stand out amongst all the amazing hardcore music that’s been released recently, they accomplished that through and through. It’s obvious that, instrumentally, they were heavily influenced by nu-metal, hip hop and metalcore, but they took those influences and created an album that makes them stand out in the crowd.

Although every track on this album is amazing on its own, the album as a whole, lacks in the flow from track to track. When I first heard the first two tracks, I thought this album was going to be something like Waiting for Morning to Come by Being As An Ocean where each track flows into the next, but that isn’t the case for Out of Control. Each song has individual elements that set it apart from the next song; the only element that flows consistently throughout is the lyrical theme that prevails. Recently, Gideon has openly struggled with their faith. From corruption in their hometown churches, to people in their lives leaving their faith behind, these difficulties clearly fueled the lyrics in this album. This can even be seen in the titles of tracks like “LIFE WITHOUT” and “DENIAL”. A few fans have already come forward saying that the lack of flow in this album was a deal breaker for them, but I disagree. Gideon needed to break away from their traditional style and give their fans something fresh and set them apart from every other band; this album accomplished that. When they released “No Love/No One”, I was worried that this next album was going to be nearly the same as Cold. It wasn’t evident that Gideon was about to explore new territory until the release of BITE DOWN and TAKE ME. Album flow is often a critical element for some listeners, but the lack of flow did not take away from the power of the each song they chose for this album.

Out of Control is going to take Gideon even farther than Cold did, and it seems that many fans agree. One fan on Twitter even replied to their tweet announcing the album saying that this album will change the genre. Honestly, I wouldn’t take it that far, but they definitely took a lot of risks in this album and none of them failed in any way. If I had to put one word to this album, it’d be “experimentation”. Although this album, as a whole, doesn’t flow as well as many listeners would like, every song is a banger in itself. There’s not one song on the album that I felt should have been left out. Even though each song is completely different from the one before, in this case, the variety has the potential to satisfy a wide variety of hardcore fans because each song provides a unique listening experience. There’s truly a song for every hardcore fan on this album, and honestly, that might be most important part of a strong album in the age of streaming. With the wide range of sound Gideon put in this album, even if someone dislikes one song, there’s a good chance they’ll love another.