Headspace

Personnel: Tyler Acord (programming).
Audio Mixer: Kris Crummett.
Recording information: Grey Area Studios, North Hollywood, CA; Interlace Audio, Portland, OR.
On their sophomore full-length, Atlanta's Issues throw fans a change-up not hinted at on their debut album or EPs. While their new songs do employ bludgeoning metalcore riffs and the raucous interplay between Tyler Carter's clean vocals and Michael Bohn's unclean ones, they've branched out in a wide arc stylistically. They experiment with everything from rapped vocals (Carter) to Bohn offering some clean vocals, and genre hops that are dizzying in melding post-hardcore with rap-metal ("Flojo," "Blue Wall," and "Someone Who Does"), country ("Home Soon" and "Yung and Dum"), bluesy soul ("Rank Rider"), and funk ("The Realest"). ~ Thom Jurek