Microwave

Atlanta-based Microwave builds a brooding yet animated sound by layering dynamic instrumentation atop the depressive, softly nihilistic songwriting of Nathan Hardy, merging loud guitar rock, post-hardcore experimentation, and raw angsty drive. The group pushed this approach to its broadest extremes on their third full-length, the 2019 release Death Is A Warm Blanket.

Hardy launched the project in 2012 upon returning to Georgia after a missionary stint on the West Coast, recruiting high-school acquaintance Timothy “Tito” Pittard (Have You Seen My Ghost?) on drums and later bringing in guitarist Wesley Swanson (Darksided) and bassist Tyler Hill (We’re Only Fiction). Drawing on material written during his travels, Microwave issued the EPs Nowhere Feels Like Home and When the Fever Breaks in 2013. Their debut album, Stovall, appeared the following year and channeled the fallout from Hardy’s departure from the Mormon Church. SideOneDummy Records then signed the band, resulting in the fall 2016 follow-up Much Love, which gave Microwave its first Billboard placement by entering the Heatseekers Albums chart. Following the 2018 single Keeping Up, the group delivered Death Is A Warm Blanket in late 2019. The concise set balanced some of the band’s darkest lyricism with its most assured songwriting and boldest production choices.