Review: “I Felt Nothing” by If I Die Today

Describing themselves simply as four friends trying to play as hard and as loud as they can, Italian Post-Hardcore crew If I Die Today have been blazing a trail across skies over Europe and Russia over the past two decades, sharing stages with everyone from The Dillinger Escape Plan and Every Time I Die to While She Sleeps in the process. A hybrid blend of Hardcore, Punk, Stoner and Metal has been the root cause of that, their last album, 2022’s “The Abyss In Silence” a darker and more aggressive concept album built on themes of grief and loss. Produced and mixed by Dano Battocchio (Ponte del Diavolo, Last Minute to Jaffna, Magnitudo) at Deepest Sea Studio, mastered by Will Putney (Bodysnatcher, Knocked Loose, Body Count) at Graphic Nature Studio and with artwork by Alberto Becherini, it seems their future maybe just as bleak as their past with new album “I Felt Nothing“.

As a band, vocalist Marco Fresia, guitarist and vocalist Morgan Ferrua, bassist and vocalist Andrea Grasso and drummer Marco Manavella are known for their intensity in the live arena, creating atmospheres of tension with aggression and urgency. Capturing that live energy and committing it to tape isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do but by the time opening cut “Lungs” reaches its crushing midway point, it’s clear that Battocchio has got the best out of them. A brute of a track with flavours of Converge it sets the tone by sandblasting the skin, apologetically in your face from the very first second. While there is that age old debate about whether the band are still rooted in Post-Hardcore or not, there are riffs of that ilk in the savage assault on the senses that is “King“, the band finding balance between impact and nuance. What sets them apart from most Post-Hardcore bands are the screamed vocals and the sheer weight of the guitar tone, “End” which features lush and haunting clean vocals from Mare having more in common with “Saga” era Will Haven than anything else.

Battocchio has deliberately brought the bass forward in the mix so you can hear it clearly through the rampaging guitars on vicious little ditties like “Dark“, the bombastic rhythms and incendiary energy making this one a jaw dropper. It has that Southern drawl of mid career Every Time I Die with interesting interplay between the musicians, fun little moments popping out of the mix over multiple listens. Alex Rope joins the party for “Monsters” providing guest vocals which add another texture, the Hardcore Punk riffs evolving into Noise Metal with screams of “Which side are you on?!” that you just can’t help but join in with. That transcends into a main riff that creates a sense of battery acid nausea in “Rachel“, the band capturing a sense of push and pull tension between full throttle passages of cathartic vent. A powerful statement piece of a track, it demonstrates more versatility as they try to burst your ear drums in another way.

As one guest vocalist is never enough Papero Tons trademark shriller unclean vocals intertwine with Fresia’s bitter bark on “Isolation“, a full fat, all sugar, high caffeine ripper that if you blink you may well miss. The earworm riffs on this record are the gift that keeps giving, the band never afraid to shift the dynamic because they’re able to do so in seamless fashion. That’s something that is really evident on “Light“, which is an absolute blast from start to finish. How they manage to play so hard and fast without derailing the train is a mystery because there are definitely points where they get seriously chaotic.

Just when you think they might not have any fuel left in the tank the quartet pull out “Cowards“, a cut with an inventive rhythmic approach and enough artillery shelling percussive battery to reduce a city to rubble. Their froth and fury gives the track a white hot intensity before the American Hardcore Punk fusion that is “1984” flips the script while being as much fun as you can have without losing a limb. Chainsaws need better operators. Grand finale? Once more with feeling? “Tar” leaves you utterly breathless as the band chant “we are nothing but the memory of someone else!” in addictive fashion with Santa Infall. If you like your sonic abrasions to be restless and relentless, hitting with such force that they could knock you into next week then this one is for you. The future is bleak so live for today as this won’t let you down [8.5/10]

Track Listing

1. Lungs
2. King
3. End (ft. Mare)
4. Dark
5. Monsters (ft. Alex Rope)
6. Rachel
7. Isolation (ft. Papero Tons)
8. Light
9. Cowards
10. 1984
11. Tar (ft. Santa Infall)

“I Felt Nothing” by If I Die Today is out 19th June 2026 and is available over at bandcamp.