Silence is broken in the first few seconds of The Missing Peace’s newest single ‘Harshmellow’ as a clean fill cascades into a waterfall of layered instruments and beautifully distorted melody. Even this incredible sound is nothing new to the post-hardcore, Washington D.C. based band, though; from the first EP they released in March 2021 to their newest release this year, The Missing Peace continues to write, record, and master music that is overflowing with talent and emotion.

‘Harshmellow’, released on March 10, 2023, lives up to the band’s legacy. It is a testament to the band’s ability to mix sound – whether that be in layering instruments, distorting vocals, or reinventing genres. The song is formatted a little differently than most, which was what caught my attention as I listened through it the first time. Whereas lots of songs follow the recipe of intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus, The Missing Peace decided to mix things up in ‘Harshmellow’; this song seems to be structured chorus-fill-verse-(long, layered) bridge-fill-chorus, and I love it. 

I love everything about this song, really. Its instrumentation is magical in the way it flows between chorus and bridge, but the layering weaved throughout ‘Harshmellow’ might be the most fascinating part. Each section of the song ties together punk-type drums, melodic and harmonic guitar lines, and the hard-hitting, melodic vocals of post-hardcore music into one seamless track. In order to make all these moving parts work together, The Missing Peace has perfected their use of transitions. They have found the perfect way to use tempo and volume changes to shift their instrumentation and to guide the listener along the twisting, winding path of their single.

This gives each piece of their track a chance to shine, while still maintaining the control and feel of the song as a whole; the strong layering of the guitar gives the percussion the ability to take liberty in the beat, mixing up the traditional hardcore backing with a stylistic flair of its own. The driving vocals, in turn, give rise to beautiful guitar riffs that complement the melody, distorted and heightened in the background. Finally, all of this working together gives the vocals the chance to alternate between a melodic pull and a more hardcore scream as the volume ebbs and fades. It’s perfectly mastered; everything has its place.

Ultimately, ‘Harshmellow’ is yet another success for The Missing Peace. While their discography contains only one EP and now five singles, each song they’ve released is thoughtful, thorough, and definitely worth a listen. ‘Harshmellow’ is no different; it’s in my top five for 2023 so far, and I have a good feeling that it’ll stay there for the remainder of the year.

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‘Harshmellow’ is available to stream right here, right now, and make sure to keep up with future releases from The Missing Peace here.

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‘Harshmellow’ : 

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Performed by The Missing Peace

Written by Christopher Pamah, Garrett Nixon, Luke Amato, Max Minichiello, and Nicolas Pascale

Produced by Hansel Romero

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