So, this one starts with me doing the usual—spiraling down the internet looking for updates on bands that I haven’t heard from a while .. Thousand Foot Krutch was the victim today (spoiler: no luck, as usual). But the rabbit hole had other plans, and I somehow ended up discovering Caleb Hyles. If you’re not familiar, Caleb started out as “that guy who does ridiculous Disney/vocal covers on YouTube.” Think big, theatrical, sing-your-face-off energy.
Now here’s where it gets fun. Somewhere along the way, Caleb just… kept going. Built his fanbase. Put out an album that, uh, let’s just say wasn’t exactly top-shelf material (at least from my opinion – it was clear that he was trying to find his sound and what worked)… but he found it. His second album, Darkness Before the Dawn, drops and it’s actually good. Like, really decent. It’s not crazy complicated guitar work, or songs, but for what’s needed, it’s solid – as in, “I’ve been sneaking it into my regular playlists and not skipping tracks” good.
Most notably, the album ropes in a whole bunch of artists that already live rent-free in my daily rotation (TFK, Adelitas Way, Lacey Sturm), which makes it feel like he’s bridging my worlds together in this kind of “hey, we all showed up at the same house party” way.
Moral of the story: no TFK updates, but I stumbled onto a guy who’s turned his internet cover act into a surprisingly solid, collab-heavy album that i’m excited to continue to follow over the coming years.
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