Knocked Loose meet their moment on You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To

Between a surprise appearance on the campaign trail with Bernie Sanders and going viral amongst the normies at Coachella, the band has been trying to write songs that are more accessible without selling out. It took four years, but despite a few missteps, they've succeeded. On You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To, Knocked Loose expand in all directions while staying true to their core.

Fans had a right to worry about this album. Drew Fulk injects the production with all the studio enhancements that are sadly necessary for a band like this to break rock radio. The gravity blasts are cheap and excessive and "Slaughterhouse 2" rehashes what was already a force-fed collaboration with Motionless in White. But the souped-up polish puts more weight behind Knocked Loose's grossly metallic churn. The snare drums pop like a keg that's being beaten with a flaming baseball bat. Every bass line slams with the cold force of a meat locker. When they're not chopping like rusty butcher knives, the riffs bleed until rotted through from all the Drop D distortion.

Knocked Loose are still tasteful, though. Despite a ruthlessly efficient 27-minute runtime, You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To indulges the odd flight of fancy. Flies buzz in the dead air. An eerily quiet melody creaks between the cracks on "Moss Covers All", only to flicker like the dying memory of a nursery rhyme beneath skittering Latin percussion. The ambience is spooky enough, but the real shock comes from something much more practical. Fulk's hit-making magic must've rubbed off, because Knocked Loose have learned how to control their anger – at least when it comes to actual songwriting. On paper, it sounds wildly unpleasant, but "Suffocate" manages to turn a reggaeton-infused breakdown into an honest-to-god hook.

Ever since they started out playing in church basements, Knocked Loose have locked horns with Christianity. The old-timey country gospel that cuts through the static on "Take Me Home" serves as another ghostly reminder that this band comes from the Bible Belt. You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To shoves their spiritual tug-of-war front and center right on the album's instantly iconic cover. The death growls are a little heavy-handed for my taste ("Bend the knee / Child of God / BLEGH"), but the lyrics are complicated by conflicting emotions. "I'm haunted by the spirit again", Garris barks on "Blinding Faith", as if he's being hounded by the blistering D-beat. "There is something inside me that won't let it in".

There's another image that looms large over You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To. "I dream of a cleansing wave", Garris seethes amidst a massive chorus that won't stop knuckle-dragging across my brain. From the opening throat-clearing scream, Garris is followed by a sickening thirst for change. "I want to start again / I can almost taste it". Religion offers us a chance at salvation, but Garris rejects that offering again and again. "Don't Reach for Me" spits at the same kind of holier-than-thou hypocrites who turned me away from Sunday school. Refusing to bow down often brings vindication. But it won't set you free. "Time passes / I stay the same". No matter which way Gerris turns, that wave keeps pulling him under.

You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To isn't about Christianity so much as it's about anything that lords over you. The title comes from a conversation Gerris had during a bumpy aeroplane ride. Regardless of what you believe, I think we can all agree there are way too many reasons to feel anxious right about now. I don't want to paint Knocked Loose out as saviours. They're blessed with more depth than your standard metalcore, but this album is far from uplifting. "Sit & Mourn" is the gloomiest and doomiest song of the bunch, but it does end the album with a renewed sense of purpose. When Gerris promises to be the one who will break your fall, it's not hard for me to envision him reaching beyond the barricade this summer during one of their many festival appearances.

For an album to help define a generation, it doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to meet the current moment. As of writing, Knocked Loose are out-charting Taylor Swift on Spotify's Viral Hits playlist. God knows whether this band can go any further. But I'm certain that we'll remember You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To long after they're gone.