_{By Trevor Myers}

Right at the start of their project It’s OK It’s Hell, Noble Bodies drags listeners in with vocals reminiscent of Paramore. Like Paramore, Noble Bodies is a three-member band featuring a vocalist with brightly colored hair. Unlike Paramore, Noble Bodies comes from Utah.

The trio (made up of Bryce Taylor, Elaine Bradley and Chris Bennett) first formed in 2004 under the name Another Statistic, but broke up in 2008, per the band’s Spotify bio. Nearly a decade after breaking up, they officially got back together and formed Noble Bodies in April of 2017. Later that year, in November, they released their seven-track EP It’s OK It’s Hell.

Taylor and Bradley both cover vocals, guitar and drums, while Bennett is on the bass. Bradley also doubles as the drummer for Neon Trees, another band formed in Utah that’s responsible for hits including “Everybody Talks.”

Overall, the project sounds great. The trio knows what sound they want (what they call “Existential Crisis Post-Punk”) and they know how to get it. With lyrics discussing religion and love, as well as wanting to escape a certain town, it seems as if they have effectively extracted their existential crises and injected it into their music. The production of the record is done well, and the instrumentals of the tracks expertly and effectively intertwine with the vocals. 

One of the standout tracks was “Foolish Virgins,” and while it is the shortest track on the record, it may very well be the most memorable. For one, the title itself is an effective attention-grabber. But, once people listen to the song, they’ll hear the title of the project in the lyrics, sung through soft vocals and over smooth guitar. 

Listeners will then hear the intensity of the song increase drastically as both the vocals and guitar almost screech in harmony, building up and drawing listeners in — before the song collapses back into the slower, softer energy from the beginning, ending with an impactful statement as they croon, “They know your name in hell.”

“You Knew What I Was When You Picked Me Up” is another track that has some of the most memorable instrumentals and vocals from the project. It has such a classic sound and feels like something from decades earlier, all while mentioning both unicorns and God.

Noble Bodies screams and shouts and jams across the seven tracks of It’s OK It’s Hell in just under 24 minutes. With the preview of the metal-adjacent vocals in “Foolish Virgins,” it seems like Noble Bodies has potential for an edgier, heavier sound. 

While the latest release from the band on Spotify was an album in 2019, there is still plenty of music to listen to, including their first single “What a World.” 

“What a World” was promoted by Seth Meyers (Bradley was also a drummer for the band on his late-night show) and was the track the band chose to open It’s OK It’s Hell. Their most-played song on Spotify is “Take Me Down,” and while it is not from It’s OK It’s Hell, it does have more of that heavy influence. Given the popularity of “Take Me Down” (with more than 73,000 plays) it seems like listeners could get behind more songs with a similar sound and style.

Make sure to follow Noble Bodies on Instagram. You can listen to “Foolish Virgins” below.