The fourth studio album from US metalcore outfit I Prevail was released on 19 September 2025, titled “Violent Nature”. Signed to Fearless Records, I Prevail hail from Southfield, Michigan and formed in 2013. Their first EP, titled “Heart vs. Mind”, was released in 2014, and they have since gained a following largely helped by a brave and attention-grabbing metal cover of Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”. The band’s ambition was well received, with the cover gaining platinum status in the US charts. “Violent Nature” continues the band’s upward curve and contains ten individual tracks.
I Prevail are Eric Vanlerberghe (vocals), Gabe Helguera (percussion), Dylan Bowman (rhythm guitar/vocals), Steve Menoian (lead guitar), and Jon Eberhard (bass/keyboard/backing vocals). The band parted ways with long-term vocalist Brian Burkheiser in May 2025, before the release of “Violent Nature”.
The album opener is “Synthetic Soul”. The intro to this track opens the album hauntingly and brings the listener in with a gentler, rising tempo. The listener can feel and hear the atmosphere building moment by moment, with the instrumentals guided by the increasing intensity of the vocals. The lyrics come across as a personal prayer, a powerful expression of vulnerability: “God save my synthetic soul” and “Bring me the rapture, tear me apart”. We absolutely love the raw emotion that opens and establishes a theme for this album.
The second track is “NWO”, which comes in with instant high energy, rapid tempos, and head-banging fury. We found it easy to make favourable comparisons with the style of Motionless In White: brutal, heavy, and fast, with repetitive guitar and bass riffs alongside rapid drum beats. The lyrics are emotive and passionate. “Kill my creator and make me watch” gives the impression of an unapologetic, critical exploration of spirituality and what it means to be human.
The third track is “Pray”. The intro to this song, and much of the track throughout, bears resemblance to Linkin Park, beginning purely vocally before breaking into all the instruments kicking and screaming. The vocals are incredibly raw, and the listener can almost feel the anguish in the lyrics. It’s a slower pace than “NWO”, and this continues into the fourth track, “Annihilate Me”. With graphic lyrics like “Pull the skin from my bones”, this track is not lacking in power. Backing up the emotive vocal work is a thumping breakdown. The poetic and passionate themes continue strongly here.
Fifth up is the title track, “Violent Nature”. This is a rapid, heavy, and furious pick-up from where “NWO” left off. Again, it’s easy to make comparisons with the work of Motionless In White, but we were also reminded of the early days of Bring Me The Horizon. Aside from the energy in the vocals, the instrumental work is a real highlight of this track. It is, unfortunately, the shortest track on the album, and we were left wanting a little more.
The sixth track is “Rain”. There are two distinct vocal styles in this track, and they complement each other really well. Initially, the vocals start clean but gradually shift back and forth between clean and raspy. We found clear inspiration from the earlier eras of Linkin Park, where the interplay between Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda always worked so flawlessly. I Prevail delivers it here just as successfully.
The seventh track is “Into Hell”. There’s a romantic and nostalgic feeling to this track. The lyrics in the slower parts of the song—“I’d give everything to just burn with you”—are an expression of what we can be willing to sacrifice just to be close to the ones we love. The instruments play thunderously and at a perfect tempo, allowing you to headbang along. Combined with the passionate and personal lyrics, this makes for a proper heavy rock ballad.
“Crimson & Clover” is the eighth track on this album and starts off calmly and intimately, with acoustic guitars and clean vocals. It might be a controversial take, but the composition, lyrics, and pacing of “Crimson & Clover” remind us of some of the best and most iconic work of Nickelback. It’s a much softer, although still lyrically powerful, counterpart to “Into Hell”. It’s nostalgic in a different way, evoking early 2000s acoustic-based work that has gone largely out of fashion in favour of electronic beats and synthesisers in rock ballads.
Coming in totally different from the previous two tracks is the ninth track, “God”. “God” is a full-on metalcore track with strong screams and rasps throughout. We love a good “bleugh!”, and this track brings plenty of them. The guitar and bass bring serious attitude and are technically impressive, while the percussion is rapid and diverse. It all comes together in aggressive breakdowns that are sure to raise the listener’s pulse.
Closing the album is “Stay Away”. Starting slower and then gradually picking up the beat, “Stay Away” comes across as a bit of a sister track to “Synthetic Soul”, closing off the album in the same way it started. There’s a seductive moodiness and attitude to both the vocals and instrumentals throughout. The calm and clean vocals contrast with the power of the instrumentals and the background screams, reminding us of that strange numbness that follows an emotional experience.
We really enjoyed listening to “Violent Nature” all the way through. We particularly liked how many of the tracks complement each other and seem to come in natural pairs. It is a fairly quick listen as albums go, with only one track exceeding the four-minute mark, and a couple of others leaving you wanting a bit more time to enjoy them after they raise your energy. The tempo of the album rises and falls quite regularly, so a listener might find themselves picking and choosing tracks depending on their mood rather than doing full album listen-throughs. Despite this, we loved the clear spiritual and personal themes throughout the album, particularly the emotive lyric work.