Album Review: The Plot In You - 'The Volumes Series'
Ohio metalcore heavyweights release huge bumper series worth getting to know.
Despite it all, The Plot In You's Landon Tewers [vocals], Josh Childress [guitar], Ethan Yoder [bass], and Michael Cooper [drums] continue to defy all odds. Picking at the threads of alternative, electronic, pop and heavy, nothing is ever off the table entirely for these four. Surging momentum from viral blow-out FEEL NOTHING on 2018's DISPOSED - not forgetting its Swan Song follow up three years later - The Plot in You have always delivered.
Ever since Plot in You brought the heat with "Vol. 1" in 2024, a fleeting glimpse into a new era, the bands' progression has been even more immense. A powerful showcase of the bands' evolution, drawing in raw emotion with enriching musicality, the likes of "Left Behind" and "Forgotten" became the bedrocks of the band to build upon. Traversing crushing heaviness with equally introspective songwriting, the mass cultivation of an audience was beginning to happen.
"Vol. 2" and "Vol. 3" shortly after in mid-May saw the band push those sonic boundaries further than ever before. Aggressive in nature, "Don't Look Away" doesn't let up for a second while intimate narrative on "Closure" sees a completely different side to one of the genre's most compelling acts.
An act noted for their fluid identities, the start of "Vol. 4" via "You Get One" sees glitchy electronics and haunting vocalisations, a fitting feature for any supernatural horror epic. The draw of breath into "Silence" is a gratifying escape before we're lurched into another bombastic flurry of cutting screams and percussive power.
Now having already amassed a staggering 360 million global streams, we fast forward to this week. A celebratory banner unifying of the bands' preceding four EPs, the "Volumes Series" Collection comes as a hard-fought singular body of work culminating the bands' new, expansive trajectory.
It's easy to be disappointed with a new album announcement being singles already released. But, it's more than that. It sees the bands' idea come to life, a gargantuan effort of short volumes released over the years that seemed incidental releases. It brings together a format that has been well over four years in the making from a group who continually turn the dial in the seismic territory of heavy music.
A dizzying display of shifting course and upending expectations, the collection not only sees the band shift to new heights - but also sets the standard for those thereafter. Together as one unifying project, you can finally see the artist vision that was sought out. From old bold throw to the next, we barely have time to pause and take stock - there's a real fire in the belly present from a band who have really laid it all out on the line.
A mammoth Summer calendar saw the quartet play at the most prestigious festival slots, including Welcome to Rockville, Sonic Temple, Hellfest and Download in the UK. The band continue their supporting worldwide tour with Bring Me the Horizon as they round it out with the last remaining US and Canada dates from September onwards.
Words by Alex Curle
