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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03.09.2007 by J-Sin
Music Reviews of Hardcore, Crust, Post-Hardcore, Metalcore
The Assailant — Colera Buy it at Amazon
Recorded last fall in Seattle’s The Red Room, “Cólera” almost instantly brings Botch to mind. Noisy cathartic hardcore with mathematically precise time signatures and filthy pounding rhythms, The Assailant takes many measures to ensure that the anxiety you feel while experiencing their music is as real as it can get. Screamed vocals drip of mania and frenzy while the tension mounts via densely layered distorted guitars. “Cólera” is documentation of pure unadulterated craziness bottled with pure adrenaline and panic attacks. Pick this up immediately if you like musical influences that range from pg. 99, Botch, Fugazi, Majority Rule, and Swans. Another brilliant gem from Rome Plow Records.
- J-Sin
Love Me Destroyer — The Things Around Us Burn Buy it at Amazon
Could you imagine if Hot Water Music actually had had balls back in the day and knew what to do with distortion pedals and more slighted screaming singers? I dare say the sound would be similar to Love Me Destroyer’s, a group who came about after several members played alongside the successful A Wilhelm Scream and Planes Mistaken For Stars. Suburban Home Records is their label, which is daring in that they’re courting a group that is far removed from the normal talent on their gifted roster. Pick it up.
- J-Sin
Clair De Lune — Assisted Living Buy it at Amazon
Minneapolis’ quintet Clair De Lune gives musical abstract art-punk new meaning with each and every new track they write. Cathartic life-changing lyrics that once again focus like a laser beam on socially conscious topics like abusive governments, greed, and consumerism. Anthems of guitar glimmer throughout this blitz of an album, daring to encounter the darkened alleyways of dance-punk, pop, and post-hardcore with an experimental drive to create powerful opuses. Years from now, we can all say that we remember when everyone thought that At the Drive In was the most creative post-punk energy out there...
- J-Sin
In the Face of War — We Make Our Own Luck Buy it at Amazon
Midwestern hardcore band In the Face of War sounds like a youth crew band gone ape shit. Armed to the teeth with chugga chugga riffs and huge breakdowns, In the Face of War break jaws with death defying sing-a-longs and gang chorus love fests. After some six years together as a group the band has solidified and is ready to climb the ladder of the hardcore charts and break out of the underground that has already accepted them as one of their own.
- J-Sin
The Bell County Silence — Surgery Buy it at Amazon
Self-releasing their album “Surgery”, The Bell County Silence has a lot of confidence that they will conquer more than just their avid MySpace fanbase. Infatuating melodic post-hardcore floods the album with manic vocals one could compare to Modest Mouse and The Appleseed Cast at a rare interval or two. Loud clanging guitars jangle alongside with frenetic drumming that forges a perfect staccato rhythm with the bass while the vocals bark their way up the tree of hard indie rock starring Hot Water Music straight in the face without flinching. Despite the fact that they’ve been together for three years already this is only a four-song EP, though to give them credit they’ve released a total of three EPs already but a quick read of the bio-sheet almost seems to indicate that this is a collection of a ‘best-of’ from all of those years and you’d hope there’d be more than a small handful of tunes.
- J-Sin
The Handshake Murders — Usurper Buy it at Amazon
Muddy guitars and bass hammer out at you with the propulsive engine of the drums fueling the fire inside. Add to that propane searing vocals and you’ve got yourself a healthy dose of the infectious and cancerous The Handshake Murders. Extremely heavy in the vein of Coalesce and A Life Once Lost, the group borrows from hardcore in small doses relying more heavily on metalcore’s roots from the last couple of years.
- J-Sin
Inhale Exhale — The Lost, The Sick, The Sacred Buy it at Amazon
Metalcore that’s Southern-fried in a stew of Down and some of the later works of Pantera with a bit of post-hardcore screamo sentiments tossed in as if it was a red wine vinaigrette. Produced by Travis Wyrick who has worked with P.O.D. and 10 Years, “The Lost, The Sick, The Sacred” is an album that the group should be proud of for years to come. As this Ohio-based band’s Solid State debut goes, it’s a fashionable heavy music album that spotlights a lot of the touches that make a lot of other likeminded groups really famous and successful with the teenager crowd. But to be honest, I don’t think that’s what this group is all about, it just happens to be a side effect. The squelching guitars wail as the screamed vocals drip melancholy and disaffected emotional outbursts amid a chaotic boat of floated near-dreams. Interesting.
- J-Sin
Gather — Beyond the Ruins Buy it at Amazon
Only two years young, vegan straightedge California-based Gather has already taken the underground metal/hardcore scene by storm. Death-defying guitar parts litter this female-fronted hardcore metal band. Her vocals are as throat-shredding as any man’s and indeed for the most part maybe even more so when compared to her male counterparts. Gather has a very 108 sound with more growling vocals and tribal-istic rhythmic breakdowns. But the 108 comparison shouldn’t surprise most who know that they recorded the album with Vic DiCara whose resume includes the likes of 108, Inside Out, and Shelter. Great old-school hardcore guitar shreds with a more newly updated metallic hardcore vibe.
- J-Sin
Get a Grip / Hammer Head — Split Buy it at Amazon
I think it’s pretty hilarious when Richmond kids spout off a bunch of obnoxiousness about how those DC kids can’t handle their scene. Yeah, that’s right; Richmond, VA is practically the epicenter of the entire hardcore scene. Thankfully there are some good bands in that area that make up for a bunch of lip-sucking idiots. Get a Grip are the Richmond group while Philadelphia is represented by Hammer Head. You may recall some of the groups that members of Get a Grip were associated with such as Cast Aside, Barfight, and Dead Serious. Hammer Head has that sludgier slowed down hardcore sound that so many in the late ‘90s embraced. Meanwhile Get a Grip is more upfront and energetic with elements of punk and a vocalist whose nasal delivery is just well sick sounding—give this man an Aleve!
- J-Sin
Feast For the Crows — When All Seems to Be Burned Buy it at Amazon
Metalcore group Feast For the Crows formed in the dust left over from Tear of Phoenix. Playing melodic death metal that has its roots in metalcore hijinks, Feast For the Crows is an energetic group whose debut is far more impressive than most groups lumped into this beleaguered genre. Driving rhythms and discordant harmonies collide with ounces of melody tossed in.
- J-Sin
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