Volumes are a band who’ve always specialized in sensory overload, but this time the assault feels even more diabolical. Thick, down-tuned riffing grinds against chilling soundscapes, all while the band’s two-headed vocal hydra of Myke Terry and Michael Barr trade venom and melody with unlikely precision. One moment is a menacing growl, then comes a hook that refuses to vacate your head. Written and recorded during a run of 2024 sessions with bassist Raad Soudani and Daniel Braunstein co-producing, Mirror Touch finds Volumes nodding to chaotic forebears like the Chariot and the Bled. The influence shows up in the record’s feral energy, but Volumes filter it through their own prism of groove-heavy metal and hypnotic hardcore.

Experience has granted them wisdom. Since their early surge with Via and No Sleep, through the swagger of Different Animals and the transition of Happier?, Volumes have endured lineup changes, loss, and the kind of turbulence that can splinter a band. Instead, it’s forged them into something tighter and more self-aware. “This is the culmination of everything the band has experienced,” Soudani has said. You can hear it in the way Nick Ursich’s drums lock into bone-breaking grooves without sacrificing nuance, or how Terry’s somber introspection collides with Barr’s instinct for soaring refrains. The push and pull between them feels almost telepathic, true to the album’s title, as if each vocal line senses where the other is going before it lands.

Musically, Mirror Touch is an all-encompassing experience. Tracks explode with jackhammer riffs before dissolving into eerie, atmospheric interludes. Harmonies rise out of chaos like signal flares. Braunstein’s production captures all the brutality, allowing the band to flex dynamics that once might have been flattened in the mix. What sets this record apart is not just its heaviness, though there’s plenty of that. It is the sense of purpose humming beneath every breakdown. Volumes sound focused, even disciplined, tightening their performances and recalibrating their identity. After weathering very real lows, they are intent on building new highs.

Mirror Touch doesn’t try to reinvent Volumes, but it does refine them. The riffs hit harder, the melodies cut deeper, and the vision feels unified. For a band that’s quietly fought its way through a decade of upheaval, this feels like more than just another chapter.