Connecticut’s beatdown insurgents step outside the mosh pit and into the abyss on a defining fourth record…

Words by Felix Bartlett  | July 15, 2026

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Boundaries have spent close to a decade circling the edges of modern metalcore, and in 2026 that patience is paying off. Alongside the likes of Chamber and Orthodox, they’re part of a small cluster of bands finally dragging the genre out of its own shadow, proving that revivalcore and Krate-core can keep chasing each other while the real work happens elsewhere. Bigger stages and better-billed tours haven’t dulled the appetite for risk. If anything, Yearning: The unbeautiful after finds Boundaries pushing harder into the unknown at the exact moment comfort would’ve been the easier option.

Vocalist Matt McDougal is the gravitational centre here, his lyrical fixation on the weight of personal decisions, the ones you can’t take back, giving the record a thematic spine that demands both aggression and something closer to confession. Opener Malconscience sets the tone immediately, folding 90s industrial murk and nu-metal swagger into Boundaries’ now-signature mosh call, with McDougal and bassist Nathan Calcagno trading “I just want to see you suffer” back and forth until it curdles into “show me what I wanna see.” It’s heavy with intent rather than heavy for its own sake.

Guitarists Cory Emond and Cody DelVecchio wear their early-2000s metalcore education proudly, and Unequal Whole is where that lineage shows clearest, all rolling chugs and twinkling leads that could’ve slotted onto a Misery Signals record without anyone blinking. Elsewhere, Skies cast amber black and Bitter ash, bitter love lean into the tempo drops that have quietly become Boundaries’ most punishing weapon, proving the band is at its most devastating when it stops sprinting.

The mixing discourse that trailed the lead single has mostly burned itself out, and rightly so. Whatever was lost in translation from previous engineer Randy LeBoeuf’s stamp, the record more than earns its new sonic palette across fifty minutes that rarely let up. This is Boundaries refusing to coast on what already worked, and coming out the other side with their most complete statement yet.

Verdict: 💀💀💀💀

For fans of: Counterparts, Misery Signals, Knocked Loose

Yearning: The unbeautiful after is released on July 17 via Sumerian Records