B-Side Guys

Control and liberation aren’t opposites in “Sacred Cyanide”—they’re locked in combat, each riff and scream documenting the violence of trying to extract yourself from systems designed to keep you compliant. Casually Committed’s Fort Collins four-piece doesn’t treat escape as a clean break but as a messy, ongoing fight that requires equal parts fury and precision.

Sydney Monday’s vocal performance carries the weight of that struggle without ever sounding defeated. There’s aggression here, yes, but also calculation—the sound of someone who’s studied the bars of their cage long enough to know exactly where to strike. When she pushes into higher registers, it’s not catharsis for its own sake but a tactical deployment of intensity, matching the post-hardcore framework that Toby Sanders’ bass, Ben Sawyer’s drums, and Alex Lutes’ guitar build around her. The rhythm section locks into grooves tight enough to feel claustrophobic before exploding outward, mimicking the push-pull dynamic of trying to leave something that won’t let go easily.

The band calls their approach “Rocky Mountain Emo,” and while that might sound like regional branding, there’s something to it—a particular kind of altitude-thinned clarity where emotion and aggression don’t blur together but stand in sharp relief against each other. The production gives every instrument room to breathe even in the densest moments, creating a sense of space that makes the claustrophobia feel chosen rather than inevitable.

What “Sacred Cyanide” understands is that defiance isn’t a single gesture but a sustained effort. Whether the control being escaped is cult, system, or personal cycle, the mechanics are similar: recognition, resistance, rupture. The song moves through these phases without announcing them, letting the musical shifts do the narrative work. When the instrumentation finally releases its grip in the final moments, it doesn’t feel triumphant so much as exhausted—the kind of tired that comes from winning a battle you shouldn’t have had to fight in the first place.

For a band formed in 2023, Casually Committed sounds remarkably sure of their identity. They’re not trying to reinvent post-hardcore or emo but finding their own frequency within it, one that acknowledges the darkness without making a home there.