The best of heavy music offers more than shallow vanity. IMPERIAL TIDE continues that iconoclastic tradition with anthems of hope through struggle, aspiring to nothing less than radical change through aggressive action. Existence In Crisis, the Las Vegas, Nevada, and Los Angeles, California-based band’s debut EP for Mascot Records, is an exercise in bombastic creative freedom.

IMPERIAL TIDE follows that lineage with a metallic hardcore-punk assault untethered to genre conventions and ready to smash preconceptions. “We came from the hardcore and metalcore scenes,” charismatic frontman Landon Hill explains. “And Las Vegas is different than anywhere else. The city gave us a hustle mindset. You can go there and get lost in the sauce, or you can find your own voice.”

The band of five childhood friends, who now call both Las Vegas and Los Angeles home, brandish a hyper-charged, relentless, and adrenalized style. They combine the exuberance of bands like Knocked Loose, the versatility and uncompromising creativity of Code Orange, and the heady depths of Gojira. Like Turnstile, they’re masters of melodic perseverance. And their breakdowns are harrowing AF.

From screen printing their own merch to shooting and editing unique visual components, Imperial Tide built themselves in the hardcore-punk DIY tradition. “We have so many influences when it comes to music and just the different kinds of people we are as individuals,” notes Schoenbeck. “We pull from all those things and put ourselves into the music and energy we express.”

A “no rules” attitude informs their songwriting process. Sometimes Schoenbeck may start with programmed, hip-hop-style beats, or they’ll key in samples. The goal is to make something nostalgic and familiar to audiences, equally inspired, fresh, and distinct from what everyone else is doing.

“Existence In Crisis is the reflection of the world around us, and our space we create in,” he continues. “The songs are a breath of fresh air without re-writing the history of the band. We put the songs together over a period of time that was filled with unrest, personally and socially. We had to say something about what we were seeing and the issues that were so blatantly present. At our core we aren’t afraid to ask questions or push back on the things we don’t agree with. The EP is our first step into pushing ‘Tide’ in a way that separates us from the standard product that our genre seems to revert too.”