Code Orange's Reba Meyers

<p>What would you get if you put the heaviness of Converge, the industrial sounds of Nine Inch Nails and Type O Negative, the catchiness of ’90s metalcore, the frantic delivery of Black Flag, and the sampled-chopped-and-glitched production of hip-hop into a blender and hit liquefy? You’d get 100 percent of your daily intake of Code Orange.</p><p>The band was formed—as the Code Orange Kids—in 2008 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by Eric “Shade” Balderose (vocals, keys, programming, and guitars), Reba Meyers (guitars and bass), Jami Morgan (drums and vocals), and guitarist Greg Kern (who left in 2010). The current lineup also includes bassist Joe Goldman and guitarist Dominic Landolina.</p><p>They’ve always played heavy and fast, rising quickly in the hardcore ranks with 2012’s&nbsp;<em>Love Is Love/Return to Dust</em>&nbsp;and 2014’s&nbsp;<em>I Am King</em>, but things took a dramatic, dense turn in 2017. (The band shortened their name ahead of the 2014 release.) Their Grammy-nominated, critically-acclaimed third and fourth albums, 2017’s&nbsp;<em>Forever</em>&nbsp;and 2020’s&nbsp;<em>Underneath</em>, incorporated all hues of heavy—drawn from all corners of crunch. In a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/code-orange-attack-of-the-sonic-cyborgs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2020 interview with&nbsp;<em>PG</em></a>, Meyers explained the progression:</p><p>“We took as much of it into our own hands that we could—writing, recording, mixing, mastering—and it drove us crazy, but we knew if we&nbsp;<em>really</em>&nbsp;did this record how we imagined it, it could become something that we’re extremely proud of and is recognized by people beyond the niche world of hardcore that we come from. That was proven to us a little bit on&nbsp;<em>Forever,&nbsp;</em>because of the Grammy nod. We realized that if we really took what we do to the absolute fucking edge, we could make something important and bigger than ourselves. Especially bigger than our individual selves, because it’s a full-band effort.”</