Mateo Naranjo is probably cooler than you. At the very least, his second album under the DoFlame moniker has him glowing with a sense of star power. Given the soaring popularity of hardcore and hip-hop, his coalescence of the two is timely, and he’s stormed out of the suburbs of Toronto to take up the mantle and tell the most visceral, larger-than-life coming of age story. In time, people will want to imitate him. BENT engages anyone who listens with a mere snap of the fingers – the dark, chugging riffs that give Can’t Stand No One such power are immediately arresting, as is Mateo’s acid-tongued rapping. ‘Come from Brampton, not the Hamptons / Touch my family and get cut,’ he snarls. Elsewhere, the title-track rumbles and rages, built around a scratchy scream of ...
