KZRN – Lost Amongst The Living

Share this on Facebook | Share this on Twitter

KZRN are an Australian metalcore trio, hailing from Adelaide. They first formed in 2021, releasing their debut single “Hear Me” featuring Madz Winter a couple of months later. “Scatterbrain” featuring Sam Upton shortly followed in November 2021, with their debut EP “Lost Amongst The Living” being released on April 8^th, 2022, independently. The first track on the extended play is “Hear Me”, featuring Australian singer Madz Winter. Things start off very well with an instantly catchy metalcore style riff doing the talking before Caiden Crafts’ striking vocals kick things off! I really like this song, it’s very catchy throughout and the contrast between Caiden Crafts’ unclean vocals and Madz Winter’s soft, feminine vocal tones is simply amazing.

“Enter the Realm” is up next, which begins with a thumping riff, slowly getting louder in volume. It introduces me to the track in the best way possible, making my head bop instantly! Caiden Crafts uses both unclean and clean vocals here, which give the track a bit of diversity. However, this track isn’t as memorable as the first unfortunately. “Scatterbrain” is the next song, which is a collaboration with Australian indie/rock singer Sam Upton. It starts off with another insanely infectious riff, which is instantly memorable. When Caiden Crafts’ powerful unclean vocals leap in, it really brings the song to life. Constantly changing thumping riffs help to keep things interesting. The chorus sounds pretty similar to BLEED FROM WITHIN’s “This Is The End Of All We Know” in terms of melody. As the track goes on, it also has similarities to that of NORTHLANE, with almost synth like riffs doing the talking near the end. “Human” featuring Henk Plaggemars is the next track, which starts with another gut-wrenching guitar riff. In the chorus, the vocals sound identical to that of JESSE LEACH from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE. Unfortunately, there is not much else to the single apart from the great instrumentals. This song is unmemorable to say the least.

“The New Way Out” is the last track on the extended play, which is a collaboration with artist and musician, Lachlan Odell. The pinched harmonics within the song sound very much like KILLSWITCH ENGAGE yet again. It seems as though the last few tracks on this EP blend into each other, meaning you can’t tell one song from the next! This is not the best closing song that KZRN could have picked for this release. “Lost Amongst The Living” isn’t necessarily a bad metalcore release, overall. Without a shadow of a doubt, you can tell that this is KZRN’s first body of work. Even though the fantastic nail-biting metalcore riffs are there, as well as insane vocals, it isn’t quite enough to propel them into super stardom just yet! There is clearly no denying that KZRN are a great bunch of musicians, they just haven’t found their unique sound yet, which is to be expected of a relatively new band. Regardless, I look forward to hearing what they come out with next.

Songwriting: 6
Musicianship: 10
Memorability: 3
Production: 10