The career of multi-genre band Issues has come full circle. After a couple years of mostly inactivity after firing Tyler Carter, due to serious accusations of grooming + sexual misconduct, they recently announced a series of farewell shows. They’ve also released a snapshot of what new music from the band might have sounded like, in the form of new song “Since I Lost You”.
It’s really a shame what happened to the band, really. Full of talented musicians that wrote genre-bending songs with huge hooks, Issues threw almost everything and the kitchen sink to the listeners in hopes of seeing what stuck. The band’s 2014 self-titled debut album was so hyped, it ended up debuting at #9 on the Billboard 200 – a huge number for a band like them. Subsequent albums kept up the momentum (despite lineup changes) and more stylistic diversity, incorporating elements of R&B, metalcore, nu-metal, hip-hop, pop, funk, and even country at various intervals. After the aforementioned allegations came out about former vocalist Tyler Carter in 2020, though, there was no more music (until today), and no more shows until these farewell shows were announced as well.
Still, what Issues accomplished is actually quite impressive. Despite being a band that’s definitely gone too soon, they accomplished their stated goal of blending Top 40 music with metalcore – and when you consider the number of bands that spawned in their wake (or alongside them) that combined metalcore + R&B + pop + post-hardcore + funk (add at least two of these) in some way (Palisades, Indighxst, Nightlife, Amarionette, pulses., Cherie Amour, Dayseeker, just to name a handful), Issues helped prove that their seemingly hodgepodge array of styles could break new ground in the industry.
