Style: Blackgaze, post-metal (Mixed vocals, mostly clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Møl, Leprous, Alcest
Country: US (Colorado)
Release date: 29 May 2026

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If I had a nickel for every album I reviewed in 2026 that was founded on genre-hopping—to varying degrees of success¹—I would have two nickels. Mind you, ten cents isn’t a lot, but it’s more than a music blogger sees in their career anyway. Would I welcome a third nickel to my lump sum in Harboured’s We’re Only the Love that We Lead? Promotional statements suggested they would not deviate from the apparent trend. Clunky stylistic blending for the sake of it tires me, man, so overtones about splicing together technical death metal, blackgaze, and the vague essence of “modern metal” lowered my expectations. But having sat down with the album several times, rewound to satisfying passages, and even added to my running playlist, I would argue the band’s PR missold the project’s brilliance.

Pleasantly, We’re Only the Love that We Lead did not melt my brain with forced robotic Instagram guitar shredding, nor did it attempt to genre-bend to placate all tastes across Encyclopaedia Metallum. This moody discourse on self-reflection and perseverance through loss instead occupied a lane defined by tender earworms, quietly technical performances, and a quintessentially West Coast vibe². Michael Stancel (Allegaeon), Brandon Michael (Allegaeon) and Cierra White (Oak, Ash & Thorn) trade the extremities of metal for a vulnerable, poppy overtone that sticks the landing but not without some rocky waters.

Harboured primarily dock at a liminal, post-metal mooring of sudden and smooth transitions which, while formulaic, delivers on the payoff. On a flowchart, ‘melancholic intro’ to ‘metallic build up’ to ‘breakneck riff explosion’ would come across bogstandard; however, the trio employs this structure as a stepping stone. Tracks occasionally take a harmonic metalcore left turn (“Dead Ringer”, “Guardrail”) or walk the Gothenburg melodic death metal plank (“New Year’s Day”) as a love letter to influence without casting originality into the sea. Layer on Stancel’s crooning clean vocals, chip in frantic blackgaze tremolo passages, and We’re Only the Love that We Lead’s hopefully depressive identity takes form. While the formula enables Harboured to hit high points—like the catchy “Debts” juxtaposing an ascendant chorus over tight blast beating from White—experimental detours anchor the LP’s appeal. If I could listen to “Halifax” for the first time again, I would smash the lobotomy button: folksy acoustics, soaring Alcest-esque singing, and snowballing rhythmic intensity drive this track 70 knots into the surprisingly jovial closer “End Credits”. Harboured never veer off course into the deep end with deathcore or dance hall numbers for the sake of it and remain committed to their post-metal grounding. 

The cargo weighing down We’re Only the Love that We Lead’s strength is the odd compositional decision. Honing in on the Trivium-coded “Guardrail”, the formula is in full force cascading a whimsically bright first act into machinegun second. The third? Bring all hands on hyping up the energy for the breakdown to hit and… fade out? When the project is thematically built on finding certainty and closure in life, the lack of hard stop on this track is an ironic letdown. The following track, “New Year’s Day”, is also an oddity being the lone instrumental. Led in by a synth and theremin guitar shrilling overhead for a minute—25% of the total length—the track comes and goes without much fanfare. The dual guitar hook is memorable, and the spooky leads lingering throughout provide depth, but this intended interlude feels superfluous when “Debts” could convincingly pick up the pace where “Guardrail” ended.

Pacing issues aside, We’re Only the Love that We Lead stays true to its namesake and carves its own path as an original, gritty illustration of modern metal’s finer qualities. Harboured’s members from established acts could have leaned into the familiar and ground out a new offering of death metal tracks, and they probably would have been solid. In this timeline, intentional songwriting led the project to a refreshing outcome that doesn’t imitate—it confidently acknowledges, loves, and sets sail on a memorable journey that I hope continues.

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Recommended Tracks: “Sevin”, “Debts”, “Halifax”
You may also like: Ashbringer, Miserere Luminis, Diva Karr
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Harboured is:
– Michael Stancel (vocals, guitars, synths)
– Brandon Michael (bass)
– Cierra White (drums)

1. Banisher’s Metamorphosis nicely sprinkled nu metal, progressive metal, and metalcore sounds into a mostly technical death record; Ice of Neptune’s Shots and Dollars bounced between alternative rock, funk pop, and metalcore with questionable connective sinews. ↩︎
2. They say it does what it says on the tin… er, album cover. Imagine a reverbed, lonely soundtrack to the backroads of a Portland, Oregon, suburb. ↩︎