Boston Massachusetts melodic death metal/hardcore outfit, Karate Steve, dropped their third album Time Under Tension on October 24th, 2025. Their vocalist comes into this album with insane hardcore vocals and energy you can feel. Listening through this LP I imagined sweaty bodies thrashing back and forth in a pit, falling over, helping each other up. This album was insane in all the best ways. There are many influences present here; I found some thrash elements in songs like Time Under Tension and Gentrifier as well as more melodic, hardcore albums presented in the track Suffer to Survive which is fast and furious and heavy all the way through. The tempo is frenetic, the vocals harsh, the drumming and guitar riff combo on the back end of the album reminiscent of stoner/sludge metal. Another standout song on this album is Dopamine which is actually more of a death metal inspired track. The vocals of Ben Davis are very muddled beneath extremely well layered instrumentation; the screaming guitars towering above the song and clearly the star of the show here. The middle section of this song is very groovy with the drums and the guitar creating a sort of interesting rhythm that's pretty unique for hardcore. Also, the guitar solo in the end of the song was a nice, welcome surprise. The energy here is dynamite and I can see people two-stepping to this song.

Martyr, the opening song on the album, very much so reminds me of a Hatebreed but with the unique spin of this band's take on hardcore. Ben Davis's vocals are incredible on this track, and I love the slow building of the guitar riffs layered beneath the vocals as well as how the song take its time to penetrate your psyche. Brother's begins with squealing guitars and pummeling drums, a sure sign of what's to come as the heaviness takes over. As is a recurrent theme in this review, the energy this band has is off the charts. The screams here are harsh and filled with anger as Ben's voices rides above the squealing guitars and the down tuned bass tones which run rife on this record.

Sleepwalker is another more thrashy offering that this band has. It begins with quick guitars and fast drums before the vocals kick in reminding us of the hardcore prowess that is Karate Steve. Unlike a lot of hardcore, there's not as many breakdowns as you might expect. There is though a lot of fast drumming and guitar solos, more akin to the thrash metal. And some of the slower songs on this record remind you very much so of sludge metal/stoner metal. Overall, this is a really good album and a very unique spin on the subgenera of hardcore. The band works cohesively to create a sound unlike a lot of what's out right now, and I truly appreciated the originality.