Music Reviews of Hardcore, Crust, Post-Hardcore, Metalcore
Band Spotlight
Chiodos
Perhaps no one can explain the sheer ferocity and timid quietness it is better than when vocalist Craig Owens says “we don’t want to let the kids down” when discussing the group’s intense vocals live at shows. Well they never let a single kid down with their vicious assault on the ears and grip on the jugular...
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Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker
Converge - No Heroes
The Graduate - Anhedonia
Death By Stereo - Death Alive
Comeback Kid - Broadcasting
The Snake The Cross The Crown - Cotton Teeth
Dear and the Headlights - Small Steps, Heavy Hooves
The Geeks - Every Time We Fall
Limbeck - Limbeck
WinterKids - Memoirs
03.09.2007 by J-Sin
Music Reviews of Hardcore, Crust, Post-Hardcore, Metalcore
On the Last Day — Meaning In the Static Buy it at Amazon
Their album title might have been derived after watching Michael Keaton in “White Noise” or reading up on Electronic Voice Phenomenon. But their brand of melodic hardcore is hardly going to be mistaken as either noise or as a phenomenon. Hailing from Seattle, On the Last Day travels down the familiar path that many hardcore bands in these MySpace days have journeyed down. That’s not to say that the music isn’t deftly packaged with ambitious songwriting or a lack of great caustic screams and melodic crooning. But we’ve heard this done before.
- J-Sin
Last Ditch Remedy — The Following Buy it at Amazon
“The Following” is the debut full-length by Last Ditch Remedy, a Washington state pop-punk/screamo quartet. Unlike a lot of their bubblegum brethren, Last Ditch Remedy doesn’t stick to the typical mall punk fodder in their lyrics. Instead they tackle things like the Iraq War, political cowardice, and more social affairs that teens deal with like divorce. Wrapped in a wrangling of punk melodies and sometimes screamy post-hardcore hooks, “The Following” is cut from the same mold as Anberlin (an admitted influence) and Glassjaw.
- J-Sin
Autumn Black — Beneath the Shadows Buy it at Amazon
Metalcore outfit boasts a “singer/screamer”. But he can’t sing so much as he can sound like he’s constipated and squeezing out a few. He can’t scream either without sounding strained. Fortunately he’s backed up by equally derivative and yawning numb metalcore so no one will really care how shitty the vocalist is when the entire outfit needs to be hit by a speeding truck.
- J-Sin
Few and the Proud — Stampede Buy it at Amazon
Yo what up Chicago straight-edge hardcore? We know you’ve been sorely missed since the glory days. Chugga chugga guitars and drums that sound like they’ve been taped up from the thrashing that they’ve had to endure give it a pissed-off fist-in-the-face type of honesty. Vicious vocals that spit out “fuck you” type of inspirations from a band who cull their name from the Marines’ advertisements. Did you forget about hardcore legends Slapshot or Judge? These guys haven’t.
- J-Sin
Daughters — Hell Songs Buy it at Amazon
Their vocalist reminds me so much of the dude from Rapider than Horsepower it’s crazy. Daughters has come and conquered the spazz grind scene from the crust punk and tech-metal kids who made it a little too cool to write chaos into a 3-minute opus of filth. Engineered by Andrew Schneider whose resume includes some beguiling and bewildering entries like Keelhaul, Cave In, Blue Man Group (what?!), and Scissorfight, “Hell Songs” rests close to Oxbow and the Dillinger Escape Plan occupying that artistic land like an Israeli squatter in an illegal settlement in Gaza. Spastic hardcore that fans out tickling and tantalizing your senses with dissonance and discordant guitar fantasies. Huge percussion with speedy double bass enters in spicing things up for a gracious out-of-control high-speed spin. Imagine if the chaotic whirlwind of Melt Banana took things into art rock’s arena, smoked a lot of Doomriders’s weed (an outfit they toured with), ate a pasture’s worth of magic mushrooms, and took enough crystal meth to make a trailer park blush. That’s the first image that comes to mind. Now sit back and imagine what would happen if you listened to the entire album? Juicy guitar that bites your hand off. Exhausting song structures that don’t have a prayer of being replicated by even the most fantastic and studied musicians. Blast beats with paroxysmal shifts in tempo and time signatures that change on the drop of a dime. Heavy metal was a concept that came up a long time ago but it never really meant anything until Daughters showed up.
- J-Sin
The Bronx — The Bronx Buy it at Amazon
The Bronx apparently forgot what hardcore punk was all about on their very heralded release. I guess that’s why they got picked up by a major label and were featured on MySpace. Go get a Kyuss album, you won’t regret it. What a complete disappointment given how good some of their earlier stuff was.
- J-Sin
Hostility — Uncompromised Buy it at Amazon
Yelled vocals with big guitars that shred riffs left and right along with huge drums, Hostility was born in high school in ’98. Thick chugga chugga riffs complicate matters. They’re most definitely another rung on the metalcore ladder. If you’ve been listening to metal for the past couple of years than you’ve heard “Uncompromised” all before (can you say Killswitch Engage?). It’s not bad but man is this genre tired.
- J-Sin
Betrayed — Substance Buy it at Amazon
Hardcore bands have been delving too much into metalcore and it’s made the once friendly melting pot of hardcore shows a big bore. Betrayed slays all of that with their latest offering on “Substance” taking us back to the good old days when hardcore was just fucking hardcore and nothing else. Pioneering hardcore back to the early ‘90’s and ‘80’s of hardcore (you know, when x’s meant something), Betrayed enlisted legendary producer Kurt Ballou to produce. Ballou not only produced he also helped with the song structure and even some writing. Raw and unnerving, “Substance” is one hardcore record you’ll be glad you picked up this year.
- J-Sin
Take My Chances — Down Here With Us Buy it at Amazon
Are they real hardcore? Yes. Speaking to us via political social commentary and emotional lyrics, Take My Chances expose their talented chops with punked up energy. The band features ex-members of This Is Hell, Heads vs. Breakers, and the Backup Plan and write compelling hardcore punk songs in the vein of Lifetime, Kid Dynamite, and Set Your Goals—they’ve shared the stage with Kid Dynamite and toured with Set Your Goals. Maximizing their energetic assault with huge speedy drumming and like-minded guitars that seem to emanate from a circle pit, Take My Chances is a nod to the old school hardcore just like Comeback Kid was.
- J-Sin
108 — Creation. Sustenance. Destruction. Buy it at Amazon
While I’m certainly far from a religious person, I do consider myself to have somewhat of a spiritual side—it’s just not engrained with any particular dogma or structure. 108 is a hardcore band, actually a Krishna-core band. Having formed in ’92 by ex-Inside Out (yes Zach de la Rocha’s hardcore band) and Beyond bassist Vic Dicara and Resurrection singer Robert Fish, 108 quickly undertook a mission to bring positive lyrics that were thought-provoking, spiritual, and honest to a genre known for its brutal live shows and thunderous pace. Writing songs concerning vegetarianism, celibacy, masculine overbearance (both in the hardcore scene and society), and other topical subjects, 108 has always been adorned with a special sort of fan. This release is a double-disc discography album that spans the entire 108 collection including their amazing “Songs of Separation”, “Threefold Misery”, and “Holyname” albums. Clearly leaning on the old school hardcore sound, 108 crafted memorable masterpiece after masterpiece utilizing their platform to spread word about their philosophy and starting a movement of their own. Show Equal Vision the love that they deserve for packaging all of these amazing hardcore songs into one inexpensive package.
- J-Sin
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