Covering all the Music You Didn't Know About Since '96

Young Livers evokes post-hardcore gritty dank guitars that drop bombs similar to seminal outfit Drive Like Jehu. “Of Misery and Toil” burns no bridges as they embark upon a steady diet of breakdowns, odd song structures, and tinkering with what we’ve all come to expect from post-indie rock outfits. Mid-range rhythms with some blasts of devastation that are few and far between remind me of a Far that doesn’t deploy a melodic singer (think Hot Water Music) and nods firmly in the direction of punk rock. Each song evokes an immediate attention span quadrant that scans the horizon looking for something better but comes up empty. I swear they are a few decades removed from the DC hardcore scene.

Yet another notch in the holy belt of engineer and musician Kurt Ballou (Converge), “The God Complex” was recorded in his den of awesome, God City Studios in Massachusetts and boasts annihilating aggressive hardcore that strays from conventions. Another Breath was formed in 2003 by a bunch of friends that grew up in “The City with a Future”, also known as Fulton, New York – yeah I know, that’s a misnomer, no one has heard of it…but maybe in the future? Anyway, this eleven-song masterpiece churns out perfected lyrical writing by singer Ted Winkworth (doesn’t his last name sound like some Golden Ticket winner from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”)? Okay I digress. The guitars are aggressive blending harmony with dissonance. Each song seems to build off the last and by the end of the LP, you feel like you just experience a 12-round slug fest with the best boxer in the sport. Isn’t it awesome that at this point in the realm of hardcore, there are still bands reinventing the genre?

Check them out on MySpace.

Plus peep some footage of their record release show:

Okay so I admit this review is well over due. But just because I’ve been slacking off, doesn’t deride any of the importance of how truly epic and essential Converge’s seventh record release is. Jacob Bannon (singer) and Kurt Ballou (guitarist) are two of the most influential people in metal/hardcore/heavy music today, with Kurt Ballou having established himself as one of music’s most revered producers/engineers with his God City Studio a well-sought after destination. Ballou’s resume in the production, recording, and engineering realm is as impressive as his own musical one with a long resume that includes The Hope Conspiracy, pg. 99, Cave In, Modern Life is War, Blacklisted, Champion, Scars of Tomorrow, Orchid, and Paint it Black among many others. Indeed the group as a whole is a visceral auteur of heavy music, paving the way for many other experimental and chaotic bands to land into a scene that is welcoming, always moving, and rarely if ever stagnant. On “Axe to Fall”, Converge yet again expands their horizons with wavering and sober moments like “Cruel Bloom” featuring bluesy gravelly vocals sung by Steve Von Till (Neurosis) amid moist piano and ambient acoustic guitars. “Wretched Bloom” also features a guest vocalist in Genghis Tron’s Mookie Singerman who smoothly pours out a velvet of clean vocals that oddly complement the typical raging storm of Bannon’s ferocity. The album pours out buckets of emotion into a room that was once soaked with blood but is now drying, peeling off red-flecked paint chips like a million past childhoods wrought with self-destructive actions, something a song like the punk-fueled “Cutter” seems to cry out on. Converge are champions of everything heavy and prove their worthiness of the crown by dipping their quill into an inkwell of heavy rock, visceral chaotic metal, churning hardcore, and melodic heavy alternative art. “Axe to Fall” will fell an entire forest before it’s through rockin’ you out.

Monotonous melodic metallic hardcore fear not, Germany’s Zero Mentality is on the case. “Black Rock” turns in a rousing and churning militant version of the over-hyped genre with smashing harmonies and crushing dynamics. Drumming is steady while the vocals sound like a blunt Blitzkrieg of tortured emotions and liberating lyrics. Steady guitars fuel the energy while the bass undercuts the rhythm with stabbing efficiency. This album has so many surprises in store for anyone willing to give it a good honest listen. Perfect soundtrack to a sweaty workout too by the way!

Boston’s hardcore outfit Lions Lions is a melodic strong band that doesn’t believe in just playing shows to play shows. Instead, the group dominates the stage, often expressing every single solitary emotion that they’ve felt since the last tour with dripping sweat authority. Smart harmonies dominate each song, vocally taking the band into the realm of visionary as well as visceral. Produced by Alan Day and Dan O’Connor of Four Year Strong, “From What We Believe” is the perfect album for big-time fans of Thursday and Therefore I Am – of course the band features ex-members of that group so that’s pretty understandable. Rangy guitars ruminate over vowels of melody while the drumming punctuates the sweet and salty posterior of a well-worked out body amid a grunge-filled universe. Niiice.

Despite the new singer Jason Woods, It Dies Today still sounds as tight as ever, as if this group who formed originally in 2001. Their hybrid brand of metalcore, screamo, and hardcore remains solid despite the over-arching clichés that blot the genre. After all, how many bands that brush their hair back the wrong way would still have the balls to cover Duran Duran’s classic “Come Undone” and actually make it sound pretty damn good. Mike Hatalak not only plays in the band but recorded and engineered “Lividity” and churned out a damn fine sound. While It Dies Today may not be a band that writes memorable or awe-inspiring classics, they do write energetic classic metallic-edged tunes. And hell that’s worth something these days.

Earlier this year Trustkill Records inked Italian metallic hardcore outfit Awaken Demons to a deal and launched upon a PR campaign online to promote the launch of their full-length “The Mirror”. With guest vocal slots filled by the likes of Karl Buechner (Path of Resistance, Earth Crisis, Freya) and The Acacia Strain’s Vincent Bennet, “The Mirror” was sure to garner some attention regardless. The album is riff-heavy with firm nods towards the late ‘90s era of metal-edged hardcore. Blasting through the confining walls that the hardcore label can sometimes bring, the group sludges guitar slams with energetic and passionate screams and yells alongside an amalgam of thrashy drumming and gut-wrenching bass slaps. The band is set to embark on a tour with labelmates It Dies Today as well as Century Media’s own Arsonists Get All the Girls. You can stream the album online at Trustkill’s site.

Produced by Casey Bates, he of Portugal The Man, A Skylit Drive and Chiodos fame (wow doesn’t he feel ashamed, but I guess everyone needs a paycheck, right?), “Sleepwalking” is the debut of this Texas hardcore outfit. Memphis May Fire fires off a double combo of melodic vocals, pinch harmonic guitars with screamo and aggro-rock velocity. Their singer left in the middle of their recording with the band “forced” to do a publicity stunt, err, an open audition on MySpace. The result wasn’t a bad choice as Matt Mullins can certainly punctuate a tune with fierce precision but you have to wonder how much is auto-tuned and how much isn’t in this day and age of mall-punk melodies and clone-core. While this band is a cliché and their sound a dime-a-dozen now-a-days, it still has its merits, just not worthy enough to really mention outside of a yawning cast-off comment. Okay I am just kidding, the only merits it boasts is that they are being paid to make music while we are not. Want to run down the list of clichés? Here’s your bulleted list:

1.)    “Funny” song titles that have nothing to do with the lyrics – “You’re Lucky It’s Not 1692” and “North Atlantic vs. North Carolina”

2.)    Obligatory mention of God/Jesus – Liner notes thank God while lyrics say idioms like “We are the chosen, and we claim your life tonight. Breathe in the light that surrounds us. Can you feel it?”

3.)    Screamo/post-emo vocals and pinched harmonics with plenty of generic “breakdowns” – Album weeps of this tired cliché

4.)    Packaged sound – You could listen to this blindfolded and not hear a single iota of Texan hardcore influence, in fact this is as packaged and mall generic as it gets.

Yawn.

Remember when Trust Kill released good music?

Filling up your innards with oodles of their fiery brand of hardcore, Dead Swans float to the surface amid a flurry of percussion, throaty screeches and yelling, slashing guitar anthems, and mid-range melodies. Oddly enough they were awarded a nomination as the Best British Newcomer for Kerrang! Awards ’08. But while that may be their biggest brush with fame, as they pulled in their heads like a turtle into its shell they concentrate of working harder and earning their demerits the right honorable way; instead of pursuing bigger and better commercial success, Dead Swans reverted to melting faces at hardcore and metal shows. Earning the respect of the majority of the hardcore scene, Dead Swans then faced their biggest test: to record a full-length. Bridge Nine Records would be the host for what would soon become an infectious plague of hardcore. “Sleepwalkers” is the fruit of that labor (or as they’d say “labour”). Crunchy guitars that awake your adrenalin glands form a vicious combo with their brand of precision-based punk’ed hardcore and chaotic songwriting. Ya nailed it guys.

Forged in the year 2006, Soul Control has emerged as a constantly shifting force in the realm of hardcore. This album finds the band embracing more of the loose hardcore styles of the mid ‘00s – heavy on the distortion and crunch with a big noisy yet driving tempo. But at the same time, “Cycles” maintains that bridge to the earlier ‘90’s mid-tempo hardcore styles that they have past exploited on singles and 7”’s. Think Sick of It All and then imagine something new and creative. Fantastic guys!