You might not believe this, but I don't actually come across that many genuine screamo, or as I was used to call them back in the day: "progressive hardcore," bands. The style experienced a bit of a signal boost in 2021, with groups like Four Your Health and Hazing Out releasing records to some solid fanfare, but those groups definitely fell more on the old-school metalcore side of the screamo scales. Austin's Votive more or less fits the bill, though... sonically, at least. As far as the subject matter of their LP Towards the Pillory, this could be a post-black metal album, as it's rife with allusions to the circumstances of one's lost faith and the failure of god's servants to properly guide their flocks on the pastures of this mortal plane. In terms of sound, Votive might have been in good company on a label like Init Records at one point, as they are extremely noisy, with layered, needling feedback conveying an incredibly claustrophobic sense of space... like you've been mortared up in the walls of someone's wine cellar and left to rot and eventually house a rat colony in your rib-cage. The murkiness that they wallow in doesn't do much to weigh them down, though, as the group nibbly prowls the meridian between gracefully flighted mathy interstitions that glide by on tattered wings and ghoulish, coffin-nail driving, grave-gouging throwdowns. Honestly, with the pitch and pace of their approach, Votive almost have as much in common with a group like KEN Mode as Bucket Full of Teeth, maybe with a light dusting of Agalloch to hasten the conclusion that they're rising from the tomb of a punished, spiritual nadir. Votive might drag you to the pillory, but there is no guarantee that you'll ever muster the strength or desire to leave it.
