My Ticket Home - Strangers Only

My Ticket Home - Strangers Only

Growing up in the 90's/00's with the whole nu-metal scene, I had an easy jumping off point to the metalcore bands that are a dime a dozen these days. I often wonder though what ever happened to nu-metal? I mean Linkin Park are doing their own sort of electronic thing now. Korn is still, well to put it nicely, trying. Adema are dead. Trapt is trying. I know those are just a few of the more mainstream artists but you get the idea. Where is nu-metal today? It easily could have evolved and adapted. Instead those bands remained stagnant and pretty much are non-existent at this point.

My Ticket Home apparently grew up in the same era as me and had the same thought process delivering Strangers Only. Best described as nu-metalcore this album is just what the doctor ordered. Ripe with teenage angst, broken chords, guitar riffs that evoke the random DJ scratching indicative of nu-metal, it has everything.

While this style easily could have led to something terrible and awful, MTH manages to pull it off entirely. It's got just enough metal and hardcore in it to make nu-metal nu again. The riffs are heavy and awesome. The structure and style aren't predictably boring or stale. The melodic parts are also catchy as hell. Particularly evident in the song Keep Alone.

My Ticket Home should be commended for what they managed to pull off with this EP. Not just any metalcore band could have done this. These kids have a ton of talent. If nu-metal bands had actually sounded close to this then maybe it'd still be a thing today. Don't be put off by all my references to nu-metal though. At it's core it's a solid metalcore album worth a listen.