A long time ago I discovered the band Makari randomly on spotify in the middle of the night. Upon hearing Better, I immediately went to their youtube and watched all their (recent) music videos, til well into the morning hours. When I next had time to sit down and listen to music, not just during my commute, I listened through their whole Hyperreal album. They have since been one of my five most listened to artists, consistently, for the past six or seven years now.
Makari is a "swancore" (whatever that means) band that started in Orlando and really became their own when singer Andy Cizek joined in 2018- from then on is where all the songs I really like are. Their sound really brought me into a "progressive post-hardcore" music vibe that I still love. Since starting listening to them, they have released an EP and a second album- neither of which really reach Hyperreal, but they're good. They've also released acoustic versions of some of their songs.
Why do I identify with Makari? Well, I'm not really sure. They make good music. I think their sound is flawless, hard rock and melody blending together beautifully. Their track Transient is, I think, one of the best rock/adjacent/whatever songs of all time. So much of Hyperreal feels so personal and intimately emotional. From this album my top song recommendations are Better, Transient, and the title track, Hyperreal. These are my favorites and give a pretty good showing of what Makari's sound is. Which, if you like it, you should listen to that whole album.
Their next endevaor was their EP, Continuum. I don't have much to say about it, as even when it dropped and I was starving for more Makari I felt it was just fine. They recently released an acoustic of one of the tracks, Labyrinth, that I really enjoy though. After this was a four year gap where Hyperreal continued to keep Makari in my top artists, all the way until they dropped their second album Wave Machine. When they first began teasing and releasing songs for Wave Machine, I felt it was going to be Continuum again where I just didn't like it as much. And while, to an extent, that is true- many of the songs on Wave Machine have grown on me. In fact, as a whole, it may be a better album than Hyperreal. From this album I recommend Contigo (God forbid a white boy gets a little motion), Gold Palace Kingdom- probably my favorite of them, and Closer. The latter two have pretty solid acoustic covers too!
I really like Makari. They're the only band I own shirts for, and have multiple at that. Their music really sits well with me. I hope you'll listen to them, and maybe even like them, too.