In 2020, Nolan Nunes, live bassist for Ghostmane, formed If I Die First alongside emo rappers and post-hardcore royalty. Their mission was simple: reignite the pop screamo flame. The genre’s convergence of nasally emo-pop-punk vocals and melodies; screamo screams and dissonance; and metalcore breakdowns totally defined post-hardcore in the early 2000s. The foundational works of My Chemical Romance and the Used had brought harsh vocals to fame. Twenty years later, If I Die First, Bury Your Idols, and SeeYouSpaceCowboy could have been its second coming. It never went anywhere.
In the meantime, the hardcore scene’s real screamo craze of Othiel and PaleFade evolved into the metalcore-infused chugs of later Versera and Kniveschou. All the while, Of Eden and Concealer pushed their metalcore towards emo. It was only logical that pop screamo would make its way back around. Enter Nunes’ next attempt: Car Underwater.
The contrast between Dagger Breaks Window and much of the lineup’s main projects is vast. In 2026, emo rap no longer has such a fertile scene. In its place is digicore and its descendants, cloud rock and zoomergaze. Amongst these genres, the most influential acts are Car Underwater members Quannnic, Photographic Memory and Darcy Baylis. Despite fan bases rarely crossing over, they expose an interconnected web of Soundcloud expats, hardcore stars and real screamo purveyors.
Car Underwater make no secret of their emulation of a bygone era; they are even named after an Armor for Sleep song. Their panic chord chug riffs sit somewhere between the more accessible acts and the heavier take of mid-2000s Underoath.
There is very little experimentation, and hardly any elements of digicore or hyperpop, despite that influence being prominent among contemporaries such as Static Dress or Heaven Unknown. “Where Ashes Lie” features a bubble-popping synth sound that could fit into an A.G. Cook production, but it also sounds ripped straight from “When the Sun Sleeps” by Underoath. There are also brief, bit-crushed drum breaks, but they are mostly used as outros, transitions, or background textures.
Otherwise, the band do little to separate themselves from the pack. There are blips into melodic metalcore riffing in one of the breakdowns for “Calling This Healing”. However, that is not uncommon for the genre.
Car Underwater know their way around hooks and vocal harmonies. “Heaven in Hindsight” proves this. Its high-energy melodic build on “The IV’s not plugged in / The medicine won’t reach my blood” is an earworm. Although, for much of the EP these hooks are vague similes and genre clichés like slitting wrists and guns to heads. While shallow, at least they skip the murdering your girlfriend trope.
Lead vocalist Max Epstein’s timbre is not as grating as its nasality would imply. In higher registers, it even resembles a stronger, less shrill version of the voice Lil Lotus used in If I Die First. He sounds best when layered alongside Baylis, and when in contrast to other leads on “The Failure of My Life Run on Self Will”.
Sonny Foster’s screams are a stand-out. Often, fry screams have little individuality, with most iconic vocalists’ distinctions coming from which artificial distortion they are run through rather than technique or personality. That is not true for Foster; his interplay with Epstein creates distinctive emotions, particularly when his voice cracks into higher pitches.
Dagger Breaks Window picks up exactly where If I Die First left off. However, this time Nunes’ efforts are punctual, as I Promised the World, Rosasharin and Atcitdio swell pop screamo out of Texas. It is generic, but features some of the better songwriting the revival has seen thus far. Car Underwater appear less like nostalgia bait and more like representatives of a genre settling back into relevance.