CRAFTER: RISING HARDCORE BAND TAKES ON TOPICS OF WAR ON "COLLECTING LOSSES"

Founded in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Crafter is a hardcore band that has been making hard hitting music since 2014. The band’s members are vocalist Kyle Taylor, guitarist Dylan Lampro, guitarist Tyler Mazza, drummer Dalton Lampro, and bassist Jon Shackelton.

Crafter is primarily influenced by early to mid-2000’s hardcore and punk bands such as Verse and Modern Life is War. With melodic twists and originality, the band shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

Building off their 2017 debut’s strengths, the band will be releasing their next full-length album, Lasting Efforts this upcoming March. With emotion pouring out of their latest single, “Collecting Losses,” Crafter is likely to have a break out moment coming in their future.

According to a statement of vocalist Kyle Taylor, “Collecting Losses” primarily deals with topics surrounding violence and war. This makes the track aggressive yet passionate.

The statement is as follows: “‘Collecting Losses' deals with so much, but the central image is that of the gates of the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial, and how they are marked 9:01 and 9:03. There’s a real symbolic element to that, as well as historical. But basically, having been to that place several times, and always in the earliest, quietest hours of morning, the overwhelming haunts of the place never fail to suck me in to another world, and remind me of how close the war (whatever war we want to call on) really is. There’s a fence just outside the perimeters of the memorial tied with ribbons and the pictures of the kids who lost their lives. I just really tried to remember their histories and their voices in the best way possible, and what was known of them before that moment.

I consider myself a 'post 9/11' person, as someone who was right in the middle of their childhood when that all happened. But it’s important to remember that there are indefinite instances of violence and war. With that in mind, there’s always this image of before and after reeling in my brain, whereas the youngest kids in the rooms don’t really have that perspective when it comes to the main event, 9/11. It’s still jarring to me. The wars go on, and many of us just moved on. But I couldn’t, for some reason. I think the violence is still tangible. If 9:03 is a moment of healing, as the gate in Oklahoma suggests, then we haven’t seen our clocks strike that time yet."

The track as described by Taylor, is definitely one filled with emotion. Taylor screams out, “The war goes on. We all hold on. The world moved on.” The single is just a small taste of the infuriated passion that is to come from Crafter.

With a Ghost Inside-like and almost Architects leaning anger blasting through on the single alone, Crafter has shown great promise. Do not let the genre fool you. These guys have a meaningful and arguably intimate story to tell.

Will Crafter’s upcoming album be enough to set them apart from other bands of the genre? Only time can tell.

Lasting Efforts will be released via Patient Zero Records. You can pre-order the album in Crafter’s Bandcamp shop, follow the band on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and give their old and upcoming music a listen on Spotify as well.

Rating: A