Album review: CANDY – It’s Inside You

There are points on this third album from powerhouse U.S. band CANDY which are so ridiculous you just have to grin. Take the title-track, which throws together breakcore beats, hip-hop/nu-metal-style record scratching, a guitar solo from guesting Trash Talk man David Gagliardi and breezeblocks of chugging riffola, with ludicrously enjoyable results. Hardcore’s heaviness is often expressed with stony-faced attitude, and there is plenty of that here too – but It’s Inside You also finds space for sheer, unabashed fun.

Heaven Is Here, from 2022, proved that CANDY were no slouches when it came to forward-thinking extremity, but this time out the fusion of fearsome metallic power and leftfield electronica hits new levels of raw energy. In this context, even the straightforward 90-second punk rager Silent Collapse feels more unhinged than it would on a less adventurous album. More representative are piledriving tunes like eXistenZ, Dehumanize Me or the Justice Tripp-featuring You Will Never Get Me, all addictive slabs of gnarly noise.

But if these tracks find CANDY at their most head-wrecking, others prove they can also be mind-expanding. Love Like Snow, guest-starring MIRSY and mmph, hits a sweet spot of curiously melancholy melody with elements of pop and trance. And the album’s last two songs, Dancing To The Infinite Beat and Hypercore, tip the balance away from rock music into glitchy, malfunctioning rave reminiscent of Venetian Snares or Atari Teenage Riot. Indeed, if the latter hadn’t already coined the subgenre/label name Digital Hardcore back in the ’90s, it’d be the perfect description of the brave new worlds CANDY have captured on this crushing piece of work.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Code Orange, Full Of Hell, Harm’s Way

It’s Inside You is released on June 7 via Relapse

Read this: 10 reasons why you need CANDY in your life