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
No Redeeming Social Value — Still Drinking! Buy it at Amazon
Having been around since ’88, No Redeeming Social Value has been a mainstay in the hardcore/punk scene for almost two decades. While they’ve always been a party band or joke band if you will, they’ve always been hilariously fun to rock out to, and if you’ve seen them live you’ll know why. This release contains music videos and a limited edition promotional DVD as well as tons of unreleased music. Great songs include “Skinheads Rule”, “Anal Cunt Sucks (and they’re all gay)”, “All I Wanna Do Is Drink Beer”, and “Beer=Fun”. Funny stuff.
- J-Sin
Ambitions — Stranger Buy it at Amazon
Connecticut is probably the last place that you’d expect something down to earth to come from, right? Well Ambitions, have, well, ambitions to do just that. And boy do they succeed. Following the destruction and implosion of seminal group With Honor, Ambitions forge a new style of post-hardcore and indie rock that fuses punk and bands like Bad Religion, Fugazi, Quicksand and others into a subterfuge of frenzied guitar anthems. Great dynamics and catchy songwriting are one of many reasons to list Ambitions as having one of the better albums this year.
- J-Sin
Crime In Stereo — Crime In Stereo Is Dead Buy it at Amazon
It was one year. A year between the noted ’06 album “The Troubled Stateside” and this, “Crime In Stereo Is Dead”. It found the group feeling disjointed and disconnected from themselves, their label, and even their fans. One member went to work as a political consultant, helping judicial candidates for the New York State Democratic Party while his diabetes continued to plague him each and every day. Meanwhile Mike Musilli became a teacher for his hometown high school. They decided to give songwriting another whirl, and set about to record “…Is Dead” with Bridge Nine Records stepping in and partnering. Amazing their punk and melodic hardcore sound was even more refined, finding the group destined to produce an album as explosive and discordant as their critically acclaimed “The Troubled Stateside”. Catchy songwriting, politically leftist allusions, and chugging guitars churn their way into a butter that makes every piece of toast that more inviting and addictive. MMM, good.
- J-Sin
Arise and Ruin — The Final Dawn Buy it at Amazon
Metalcore mavens Arise and Ruin have proven that our neighbors to the North can be just as devastating as any metal band here in the States. Sick vocals that scream and do hardcore yelps are but one iota of “The Final Dawn”’s twisted stomach-turning metallic crunch. Double bass drum kicks combined with the insane guitar assaults are but more reason to go and lock up all your valuables. Adrenaline and alcohol junkies that want to create some pit-mayhem have now finally found their soundtrack in ’07, which was recorded by Unearth’s guitarist Ken Susi.
- J-Sin
Ashes of Your Enemy — The Undying Buy it at Amazon
Metalcore hybrid Ashes of Your Enemy demolish their native New Jersey with a crushing onslaught of guitar-centric metal. Having been together for two years now, Ashes of Your Enemy has drawn a line in the sand and shown that no one will ever forget the impression that Pantera left upon the metal world. Now while their music for the most part definitely has a certain nu-metal mark about it, fortunately Ashes of Your Enemy doesn’t always rely on clichés and instead will surprise you with their dynamic and head-spinning approach.
- J-Sin
Nights Like These — Sunlight At Secondhand Buy it at Amazon
Victory Records has made their mark not so much with their hardcore or punk acts that they were so known for in the late ‘90’s and early ‘00’s but with their more made-up (as in eyeliner) screamo and emo-ish bands. Well move over wusses, here comes Nights Like These, a band destined to avoid pigeonholing for forever. “Sunlight at Secondhand” finds the group bouncing from metalcore to hardcore, dark metal to technical brutality all without ever taking a breather or a mulligan. Spastic guitars, stirring vocals, and plenty of merciless gut-checks, Nights Like These are a favored choice among the black-dyed hair do groups.
- J-Sin
Bless the Fallen — The Eclectic Sounds of a City Painted Black and White Buy it at Amazon
Brutal rhythms and solid lead vocals that have nice range are the first elements of Bless the Fallen that you’ll notice. With their debut album now out on Crash Music, the group seems destined to raise the collective decibel level and gush out with their eye-popping off-kilter technical metalcore sound. Loud drums, spastic guitars, and vocals that bounce from singing to screeches to screaming. Not too bad.
- J-Sin
Fight Pretty — Rewiring the Human Body Buy it at Amazon
Having just seen “Transformers” I almost feel like the album’s title is meaning something robotic and unfeeling. But I was sadly mistaken when Fight Pretty’s unpretentious brand of passionate and very human sort of hardcore is unleashed. It reminds one of Converge, the Locust, and Undertow. Having toured with the band of brothers known as Ed Gein, Misery Index, and Animosity, Fight Pretty shows that their approach is not only friendly to the ears after a visit to the studio but sounds pretty intense at a live show too. Angular guitars attack the air that surrounds their singer whose prose flows from nostrils and lips that bend harmony in ways it was never meant to amid screams and yells that make Jacob Bannon look fucking sane.
- J-Sin
Robots and Empire — Omnivore Buy it at Amazon
From up north, Robots and Empire empty their wallets of their powerful rock credit cards and go into debt with their metal hybrid sound. Post-hardcore visions cast a shadow upon “Omnivore”, which seems likely to be among the tops in all lists of heavy albums this year without a shadow of a doubt. “Omnivore” is a dog fight in chugging riffs that remind one of Quicksand with its dirty bass grooves and wailing vocal harmonies. Easily the bastard step-child of Orange 9MM, Failure, Black Sabbath, and Cave In, Robots and Empire seem destined to write raw energetic post-hardcore anthems that no one has a hope of forgetting.
- J-Sin
Atlas Shrugged — Vigilante Songs Buy it at Amazon
New York hardcore band Atlas Shrugged is a look back at what used to be quite popular in the hardcore scene. It’s awesome too because I haven’t heard a band do this style of hardcore this passionately in quite a long time. Why aren’t more bands these days taking a firm look back and trying to recreate that sick sound? All nostalgia aside, Atlas Shrugged dominates with crushing breakdowns, loud and abrasive guitars, and yelled vocals. Also included with these three songs is a live set recorded at the legendary CBGB’s on Mother’s Day way back in ’97.
- J-Sin
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