IMMERSE – “Southbound” (new single)

**Southbound**
New Single by **IMMERSE**
Release: 04.09.20

Immerse re-emerges with their third single release of 2020, Southbound, and it has a completely new flavour than what we are used to from the Bristol based post-hardcore heavy weights. The song has a much happier pop-punk sound than any of their previous releases, and they wear this colour pretty damn well.

They have built a reputation on being a voice for positivity in a cynic’s world, and no song puts this quality and character on display as much as this one will. In times like these, it is a breath of fresh air listening to their uplifting soaring choruses and upbeat melodies, and with this release they thoroughly squeezed that lemon dry to produce some of the sweetest lemonade they could.

Starting off with a fast tempo groove to get the bodies moving, the intro gives us a taste of the song’s captivating melody. The verse leans into that groove with emphatic screams, differentiating itself juxtapose with the brief chorus after. A quick ambient clean vocal layered behind the screams before the chorus eases that transition with blissful effect.

The chorus in itself is an out and out pop-punk chorus, with a fantastically catchy hook about taking the time for introspection and soul searching when we miss the ones we love.

The following verse reverts back to the groove, but sticks with the clean vocals to drive that liberating melody home, breaking back to the chorus that drops into the interlude after, which is a spacious slow ambient build up back to the chorus.

The outro throws the screams back in our face just so we don’t forget how this all started, making even the song’s structures fit into the metaphorical message of the song.

Southbound is a great song, that can easily slot into most playlist ranging from rock to the heavier end of the metalcore spectrum. I imagine it to be a great feature on road trip soundtracks. After countless listens, it is safe to say I was kept fully immersed.

– Franco Rootman (The Basic Human Principle)