AleraBeware the Snake

Hysteria readers, surrender your will. It’s time to join the Alera cult.

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The Melbourne based band had cryptic beginnings, building up titanic levels of hype with a stack of impressive singles shrouded in mystery. Now, they’ve made good on all that promise, sharing their debut EP, Beware the Snake. Spoiler alert: it’s really damn good.

Not just dark and a little chaotic, it’s also a celebration of thunderous screams, perfectly balanced cleans and ancillary riffs. With nods to the likes of Alexisonfire, Saosin and Senses Fail, Beware the Snake will have you partying like it’s 2006. And while elder emos will revel in the EPs retro post-hardcore approach (the longer song titles should’ve given it away!), it offers more than just nostalgia.

Beware the Snake shows that old school post-hardcore will always have a place in our scene. And as for Alera, it’s proven that they are the best-kept secret no more. 

What Alera has done is craft six tracks that sound fresh, not dated. And they’ve done this by flexing their storytelling muscles, especially on Bleak, which touches on mental struggles and SMS [sucre mort seraphin], a concept piece on deception and death. Failure; an Anecdote for Expectations, is just as impressive, carrying the important message of living up to your own standards, not those of others. Beware the Snake shows that old school post-hardcore will always have a place in our scene. And as for Alera, it’s proven that they are the best-kept secret no more. 

STANDOUT TRACKS: Bleak, Failure; an Anecdote for Expectations, SMS [sucre mort seraphin] STICK THIS NEXT TO: Alexisonfire, Saosin, Senses Fail