\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tKnocked Loose frontman Bryan Garris is an ordinary-looking dude who screams all his lyrics. \u201cI just can\u2019t sing,\u201d Garris tells me matter-of-factly. \u201cI wish all the time that I could, but I probably wouldn\u2019t utilize it for Knocked Loose. We just want to be an intense band. There\u2019s never, ever been a conversation of softening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tEven without toning down the mayhem, Garris and co. have scored one of 2024\u2019s most commercially successful new rock albums from one of the genre\u2019s most traditionally un-commercial corners. Knocked Loose play pummeling, metallic hardcore\u2014the kind of stuff that\u2019s forged in basements and DIY venues, fine-tuned for moshing and fan connection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tYou Won\u2019t Go Before You\u2019re Supposed To<\/em> is 28 minutes of pure carnage, free from any commercial concessions. After dropping on May 10 through Pure Noise Records, the band\u2019s third studio album debuted at No. 1 on three Billboard charts: Independent Albums, Hard Rock Albums and Indie Store Album Sales. The album earned nearly 24,000 units (including an impressive 18,000 in pure sales) in its first week, good for a No. 23 debut on the Billboard 200 dated May 25. Some context: it debuted ahead of a new studio album from Kings of Leon, a major label band with significantly more industry clout. (And among fast-rising newcomers, Knocked Loose came in five spots above Chappell Roan\u2019s The<\/em> Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess<\/em> during that particular chart week.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\t\u201cPeople were excited to buy this record,\u201d says James Vitalo, Knocked Loose\u2019s manager for Gold Theory Artists. \u201cThey carry themselves so well and are so intentional with everything they do. People want to see them win.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tHistorically, heavy rock bands tend to forge commercial inroads by making their sound more palatable: think Metallica serving ballads on The Black Album<\/em>, or Bring Me the Horizon ditching their MySpace deathcore roots and singing big, shiny choruses on 2013\u2019s Sempiternal<\/em>. Instead, Knocked Loose dug their heels into the sound that made them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe five-piece (which also includes guitarists Isaac Hale and Nicko Calderon, bassist Kevin Otten, and drummer Kevin \u201cPacsun\u201d Kaine) formed in 2013 in Louisville, Kentucky. \u201cWe were thrown into the deep end of DIY touring,\u201d Garris recalls of the early days. \u201cYou\u2019re trapped in a basement, either fighting or getting beat up. Louisville was never very violent. Then [we were] going to bigger cities, seeing how hard people mosh.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tKnocked Loose became one of the hottest names in hardcore thanks to their 2014 EP, Pop Culture<\/em>. They signed to Pure Noise Records, a young indie label best known for breaking pop-punk bands like State Champs and The Story So Far. The pairing was an immediate win for both sides: Pure Noise boosted its cred with a buzzy band outside its typical purview, and Knocked Loose got a label with strong independent distribution (the Orchard distributed You Won\u2019t Go<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tTheir 2016 debut album Laugh Tracks <\/em>solidified their national following, particularly with the minute-long tune \u201cCounting Worms.\u201d Its earthquaking breakdown \u2014 punctuated by Garris barking, \u201cARF ARF\u201d<\/em> \u2014 was memed<\/a> across<\/a> the alt-kid internet, and gave Knocked Loose an early signature song. Three years later, they\u2019d built such a strong following that 2019 sophomore album A Different Shade of Blue<\/em> debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard 200, more than 100 spots higher than Laugh Tracks<\/em>, which started at No. 163 in 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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