ACxDC
Photo Cred 📷: @acxdc_666
Twenty-one years into their time as a band, ACxDC is still going strong and is unleashing another fast, angry, and unforgiving album. But that’s not all there is to it. Due April 26th, G.O.A.T is 17 tracks with eye catching titles and no genre commitment, refusing the box of “powerviolence” and embracing the influence of a range of music. In this project, ACxDC digs deeper than ever before.
While their familiar humor remains consistent, it has evolved, as has the band itself and the world around them. Explained by vocalist and scene hero Sergio Amalfitano, “I think cosmic horror, the pandemic, death, anger at the general populace over the last couple of years, et cetera, has really sort of boiled over in me. I feel like this album is a bit more biting, a bit more straightforward, a bit more tongue and cheek, and there's less held back. Satan Is King was a Kanye diss. This is a diss towards everyone… I think we experiment with genres more than most bands. We definitely add dbeat, hardcore, punk, oi, death metal, thrash, etc AND if you really listen you'll hear the influence outside of those genres from funk, pop, musicals, and more. I think too many people are hung up on labels and we don't care. Obviously greatest of all time can be seen as a fuck you to everyone else…it kind of is, in the most tongue in cheek way, a way of saying we’re a band that stands apart because we are a band that does what we want without thinking about anyone else’s expectations. So to us, we’re the greatest band we can be”.
Handling weighty themes such as political rage, depression, failure, imposter syndrome, and self-doubt more directly than previous releases, this project holds nothing back, and expects the same from its listeners. “I think we just sort of hone in more on what we like and are able to express it better. I find that we’re less ‘afraid’ to play whatever we want however we want without regard as to how it'll be received or interpreted,” states Amalfitano, “I also think that lyrically it's a lot more on a personal level now than ever before. We used to be very adamant about using lyrics to express concepts in silly ways where you could sing along without deeper thought if you didn't want to, but now it’s just a lot more blatant… I want people to be able to relate to the energy of this album in a way where they’ll feel an emotional release. I'd love it if people hear this and get blown away on multiple levels.
“IF YOU CAN HEAR AWESOME SONGS, FEEL THE LYRICS, AND RELATE IN A WAY THAT MAKES YOU WANT TO EXERT ENERGY THEN WE'VE DONE OUR JOB”.
- SERGIO @ACXDC_666
Recorded with Taylor Young of The Pit Recording Studio, G.O.A.T is a wholesome collaborative effort, built by longtime drivers and residents of the extreme music scene. The comfortability and shared beliefs shines through in the album, working to form this cohesively jarring collection of songs. “In terms of production we are very laid back and trust our producer entirely. “Taylor Young is a beast when it comes to recording. He understands all of the extremities of the music we’re trying to accomplish and can capture it better than we can even try to translate our thoughts. Everything from tone, pedals, sheer loudness, all really is a result of him. We come in with ideas but we value his input very much and feel like he’s a close friend so he can be honest with us if he thinks something sucks, ha” Amalfitano describes the recording experience.
It had been four years since the group recorded G.O.A.T’s predecessor, Satan Is King, with Young, and since then they have undergone new experiences and gained new insights as the scene and world kept spinning through a pandemic and major political events. “It's always very relaxing to be in the hands of a professional that’s your friend AND very importantly also involved in extreme music. I think it was standard in the sense that we record individually, but I really enjoyed the vocal tracking. I came in with certain ideas that weren’t very traditional in the sense of following the music exactly and Taylor ran with it with some awesome suggestions. After years of the pandemic I think we just wanted to write something strong, cohesive, explosive, etc, and that lack of recording during Covid really pushed us (in particular the sense of isolation/depression that can be seen in the lyrics)”.
However, Sergio’s voice and perspective isn’t the only one that can be heard on these subjects, as for the first time ever, ACxDC has brought some notable friends (namely, Henry Everitt & Roger Rivandeneira (No/Mas), Alex Jones (Undeath), Elliott Morrow (Gulch), and Galax (Greenwitch)) to feature on their most synergetic project yet. “We've never had features! So it was a unique sort of thing to have happened on this album. I never really thought of having ‘outsiders' really participate in the recordings. I just always thought ‘oh well, just have the band do backup vocals’. But I was excited to have people whose artistry and bands I really respect. It's great to showcase your friends on records and collaborate and see what their take would be on something”.
After over two decades as a collective, you can expect to hear a level of mastery of a familiarized process. Falling into their natural roles, band members Sergio Amalfitano, Jorge Luis Herrera, Ryan James Corbett, and Edward Jason Oropeza, despite any differences, stand as a unit in backing DIY and innate humanity, each bringing value individually to the album. “We all sort of create what we can on our own time and bring it to the group. I hum ideas into my phone or reference other bands (usually not extreme bands) in terms of grooves or breakdowns as well as lyrical concepts that shape the song. Eddie is the main riff master so he'll come up with some killer stuff and demo it so we can morph it into something we all dig. Ryan also writes on guitar and translates stuff to bass and comes with complete songs. Jorge is the backbone so he adds his flare to stuff. Generally though it's collective and we all throw our ideas in the bowl when we do get together,” Amalfitano expresses, “We stand for us. We represent us. We don't necessarily all agree on every single thing but we love each other and we want to express ourselves together. I think at this point we just want to show people what we can create as a unit and have them take that on for themselves. Yes some of us are vegan, edge, anarchist, queer, etc. We all just believe in DIY and not being a fucking asshole”.
Besides a pithy and sonically enticing album later this month, there is more to expect coming your way from ACxDC including “one more LP” and “lots of touring”. They plan to take G.O.A.T “around the world,” to “hang out with friends, call out dumbasses, and have the usual with more fun shows and less giving a fuck”.
To conclude,
“Free Palestine. Fuck Christians. All governments are useless. Shoot more politicians.”
Checkout their bandcamp here: ACxDC
Writer : @ab.bashara
Editor : @just_reidz
04/22/24
Excuse Me, Who Are You?
Photo Cred 📷: @alexkiander
Nothing quite like some sad lyrics being yelled at full volume over twinkly guitar riffs and hard strumming patterns. Since the summer of 2021 Excuse Me, Who Are You? have been showcasing their unique style of Midwest Emo, their occasional use of breakdowns with a rougher tone and feel overall to their sound separate them from the oodles of other noodly bands out there making them stick out when being compared to the much softer, twinkly sounds you’d normally associate with the genre. Their grittier sound sets them apart from their peers who they stand side by side with at the top of all DIY emo lists amongst fans of the genre.
The four piece, Madison, Wisoncsin based band have kicked back into 2024 with two noodly new singles. “Maybe That Truck Hit Me…And This Is All a Dream” (now streaming everywhere) and we’ve got the exclusive premiere to the music video for their latest track “Let’s End All of This”.
“There are a lot of ways to interpret surrealism, but for me the way that’s always made sense is that art wants to be made, the world wants to be turned into art. After listening to the song a bunch of times it seemed that if we could get the band together in a beautiful place where we were free to explore and mess around, interesting ideas and images would happen organically. It’s an intense song, sonically and lyrically- few things in life are creepier than feeling like you can’t trust the people closest to you, or even worse, yourself. In response to this kind of subject matter, it felt crucial that the shoot had to be a lot of fun- hiking around the woods, riding four-wheelers, PBR by the fire. I think the fun is what allowed us to go into weirder, darker terrain- bright lights casting dark shadows.” - Evan McConahay (music video director).
And from the bands perspective “We spent the whole day four wheeling, drinking, and just hanging out while filming in between. We have all talked about how it may have been the most fun we’ve had together outside of music as a band. Jackson made a fire at the end of the night before we put grass and paint all over Stu with the randomized strobe light. We were all laughing our asses off to even tears inside of our masks while Stu has a vivid memory of how horrific the event was from his perspective despite it being his idea.”
The music video to “Let’s End All of This” brings a darker tone to the screen, matching up with vocalist Kyle Kinney’s lyrics “Bury me with all my friends” the compassionately yelled vocals of Kyle are more raw than ever on this track as they struggle to maintain a balance and trust within these friendships through emotional and instrumental breakdowns throughout the song.
I WROTE THE LYRICS AROUND THE LINE, “BURY ME WITH ALL MY FRIENDS”. EVENTUALLY, IT WENT FROM A CUTE SONG ABOUT LOVING MY FRIENDS TO ALSO INCLUDING STRUGGLES I DEALT WITH PERSONALLY BETWEEN MYSELF AND THEM. THE LINE I WROTE THE LYRICS AROUND ACTS MORE OF A DOUBLE ENTENDRE FOR THAT REASON NOW”.
- KYLE @EMWAY608
I only exist when you need something If I’m dead, let me rest Bury me with all my friends
Bury me with all my friends Bury me with all my friends
I’m hardly stomaching the overarching gut feeling that I shouldn't exist As it is, I’m scared to admit I’m not treating the culprit I’m a victim of myself So bury me
Bury my friends
In spite of everything you’ve done for them Eventually They will hate you Fuck you
EVIL EXCUSE ME, WHO ARE YOU? DOESN’T EVEN SAY EXCUSE ME!
Excuse Me, Who Are You? will be playing with over 150 amazing bands for the Pugdale 2: Welcome To Pugdale Festival weekend and some of the acts they’re most excited to see and play along side are Guitar Fight From Fooly Cooly, John Galm, Flight Patterns, Frail Body, Sign Language, Calicuzns, Stars Hollow, Riley!, TRSH, Mouthbreather, Palette Knife, Moosecreek Park, Kerosene Heights, Arcadia Grey, Stay Inside, Swiss Army Wife, and EDMquipment.
Keep a lookout for their next release soon to come soon from Thumbs Up Records and catch them live in Ferndale, Michigan at Pugdale Fest 2: Welcome to PUGDALE, on Day 2, June 29th.
USE CODE “NJAP2024” WHEN PURCHASING YOUR PUGDALE 2 TICKETS TO RECIEVE A DISCOUNT!
Checkout their bandcamp here: Excuse Me, Who Are You
Writer : @just_reidz
Editor : @just_reidz
04/18/24
Sinking & Arms Like Roses Split
Two great emo bands are collaborating to bring you a very special release that I’m positive will still be on everyone’s minds and at the top of their year end lists when that time comes.
Sinking, based around the Massachusetts area, and the Connecticut based emo act, Arms Like Roses, had begun sharing the same drummer, Thomas Shrieve, roughly about a year and a half ago. Aside of now sharing the same drummer they’ll also be sharing the same upcoming release date for their flawless split dropping on April 19th, physicals will be on CD and cassettes through @realoemo and @milkcrate_merch, each side containing 3 brand new songs a piece and a classic emo cover song from each band. Thomas claims despite him being the drummer for both bands now that they thought of doing the split before he even joined Sinking. “It came up when we did a weekender with each other back in 2021 and we became friends very quickly.”
Both bands are at their best on this split and it offers everything that great emo songs should have, a perfectly lawless use of dynamics and tempo in the rhythm section, emotionally introspective, poetic lyrics that tug at the heartstrings, captivating vocals that make you wanna sing along and scream as loud as you can and guitar work showcasing that the “hardest hitting” and most well written riffs don’t need to be oversaturated in distortion to pack a punch and burrow into your brain.
Sinking kicks off their side of the split with ‘“Doze” by first instrumentally setting the tone so that you know this split is gonna be nothing short of magical. The guitar work immediately gave me nostalgia for old Jimmy Eat World tracks like “Bleed American” and “Sweetness” and Matthew Good Band (Beautiful Midnight era) the early emo sound of the aughts on this track poured out of my earbuds and turned into unfiltered energy that made its way to my bloodstream and gave me goosebumps. I was later informed that the album “Bleed American” was actually used as a reference album when it came time for mixing these songs.
Vitality ensues from one track to the next as “Thistle Blossom” hits suddenly after a movie quote from well.. ”It’s actually not from a movie, it’s from a video of a drunk frat bro we met after a show haha”. Energy rises with jump happy rhythms while octaves glide, bend and melt into the vocals and rhythm guitar work on this radio friendly track.
Currently streaming online are “Untitled Love Song (Dedicated To No One)” by Arms Like Roses, (which is their first new single released since 2022) and “Thistle Blossom” by Sinking, the music video for this track originally debuted on Realoemo and can be viewed right here as well.
Sinking’s third track “Horace” I feel is their most layered and technical song. Every instrument is doing its own thing almost completely separate of their counterparts for the entirety of the song although at one point the lead guitar does match up in a similar scale to the vocal melody that sings “neighbor, bloated, sweet like swine, bent and grown, taking up our precious time” from 01:14 - 01:33 is a sync up worthy of thee highest praise.
At last we have the Apleseed Cast cover “Innocent Vigilante Ordinary” and it fits so well with their originals on this split that it’s no wonder why they chose to cover it. Often times a cover song can sound forced by bands, a joyless practice to engage audiences who may know the artist well but will know the cover song far better than the actual artist covering it. That is not the case in this cover, Sinking have put a new coat of shiny paint on an old classic and it sounds brand new again. (Not to mention that being able to hear this 21 year old classic emo heater with better production is in itself a pleasure all its own).
Arms Like Roses’ side of the split starts off with “Untitled Love Song (Dedicated To No One)”. As two clean guitar riffs dance along the fretboard romantically for a brief moment before being greeted by the beautiful vocals of Estelle Angel as the drums and bassline kick into a light gallop completing the full rhythmic framework that supports the opaque opening lyrical query “they say rejection just protects you from what could've been, well if that’s true when will these bruises fade?”. This song has everything on my checklist to be considered as an impeccable track, including all the required criteria I mentioned earlier in this article, this song also highlights some excellent backing vocal patterns and flawless vocal vibratos, guitar leads with octaves that jog through the chorus rhythm parts and exceptionally vigorous tom drum patterns to accompany the noodly riffwork in the latter half of the song.
Whisk all that up with some enchanting gang vocals and a few crackly screams yearning to be heard “I deserve to be flooded with love, I deserve to be flooded with love, instead searching through dried up wells. I deserve to be flooded with love. I deserve something” and you’re left with an emo anthem you can listen to on repeat and never tire of.
“Glass Thoughts” is quite literally a toast to mental illness (lyrical pun intended). A lonely guitar part enters and sets the stage.. “Open your eyes and face the silence, you can’t hide yourself anymore, they can see right through your glass thoughts”. These lyrics had me holding my breath in anticipation while the song lulls you in with a slow and slumberous melody, the drums punch in gradually building up the tempo and melodramatic dynamics for two minutes only to have it all stop dead in its tracks to hold you in the mid air suspense of a tame single note picked riff for a few breaths just before it smashes into another massive wall of sound from the full band that doesn’t stop evolving until it’s end when Estelle finally sings out the rest of this ballad with honest thoughts and important steps for us all to consider “You don’t have to pretend to be alright. Dust off your old jean jacket and take a good look at yourself”.
“New Moon” stumbles in with an uneasy vibe as frantic, anxious lyrics and stressed vocals tremble and quiver out a poetic spoken word monologue in a fashion that La Dispute would be very proud of. Estelle’s rant begins “Pacing miles around this vacant room. Holding hands and taking turns reliving our childhood traumas. I'm the worst kind of person that you're somehow obsessed with. Through depression we can coexist and still feel conflicted. All the question marks and made up words, they're so claustrophobic and exhausting”. Beginning to relate and feel the pain on a very personal level right as the lyrics then decided to personally attack me with “just to live another day throwing fists and slurping ramen from the bottom of the trash barrel”. As the words hit my ears I damn near spat out my ramen in a fit of depressed protest.. Seriously.
In Estelle’s own words “The song is referring to a specific friendship I had for several years that had many ups and downs. There were a lot of emotions involved because my friend had been struggling with addiction for a long time; specifically being an alcoholic. The pandemic especially made it more difficult due to having limited access to help, support, and feeling isolated. I had played a significant role in their life for such a long time, but I was beginning to have pent up resentment because I felt like I made such an effort to help, and it didn’t make a difference. It really hurt to watch such a close friend slowly kill themselves day after day.
I have struggled with plenty of my own mental health issues, and tried my best to show my empathy, but at a certain point it was just damaging our friendship. After some time there was this sort of “revelation”. I wanted to move on from my past trauma, and learn to genuinely love myself despite all the hardships I had endured, they wanted to live a sober and healthy life.”
Each band finishes their side with a classic emo cover, Arms Like Roses cover “Oh Messy Life” by Cap’n Jazz and I know I’m gonna anger the purists and oldheads who will think this isn’t allowed or will tell me this opinion is “wrong” but I really enjoy their cover more than the original. So sue me. It’s an amazing rendition of the song and no one can debate that.
Physicals will be on CD and cassettes through @realoemo and @milkcrate_merch on April 19th but until then..
Checkout the EP here : Sinking / Arms Like Roses Split
Writer : @just_reidz
Editor : @letsgetpivotal
04/14/24
beforeyouleave
Photo Cred 📷: @pasaboof
Gosh, I hate "Take me Home, Country Roads". It's up there with "My Heart will go on" and "Last Christmas" when it comes to most annoying songs ever. Thanks beforeyouleave, for putting that awful tune in a new light and wreckin' it up in good screamo fashion how it already should be done 50+ years ago.
beforeyouleave are a three-piece from California. And while they're reciding in Los Angeles, they're definitely inspired by and connected to Apple Valley. This rather small city was the birth place of a new movement in Screamo and it probably began with the formation of self versed records, the success by vs. self (who's guitar player Kyle runs said label) and the hype around widowdusk.
What followed was an exciting 2023 with lots of young bands spawning from the fruitful floor in Southern California. Bands like So Concerned, Versera, Hedonic, letsmakenothinghappen, September (istheonlytimeidontthinkofyou), Enertia and Undercard, among many others. Some of them you might not know if you're not local yourself. Could be that they already played a show without creating any social account for their band. That might seem kinda strange in 2024, but this SoCal scene is pretty oldschool in that regard. They don't care much about Social Media and rather set up some shows with their friends. It's a very youthful movement built on pure passion. But as it is, you don't know what they have in store tomorrow. They could suddenly disband without posting about it or they could put out a double LP... nah, scratch that... it's still Screamo!
Musically all of those bands are totally lo-fi and wild at their attempt of playing instruments, writing songs and screaming into microphones. beforeyouleave do it just the same way. When the heroic demolition of "Country Roads" is done, they have three more tracks to fuck shit up. If you're familiar with the mentioned bands before, you'll eat this EP up!
It's frantic and slightly chaotic, with distorted guitars, raw mosh parts, breakdowns and harsh screams that battle all those instruments which are mostly higher in the mix. In terms of rhythms and in terms of their love for apocalyptic melodies, they took notice of the real greats in screamo. Of Jeromes Dream. And Orchid. They even mix things up a bit with the title track, that closes the EP. Halfway through they throw-in moody, spoken words by a female voice and go back and forth between them and ugly blasts, before ending it abruptly. A more than promising debut, that is.
Speaking of Orchid, Jeromes Dream, local scenes, youth and all that stuff, this new movement gives me nostalgic feelings and let's me think about the Californian scene in the early to Mid-90s, where everything revolved around Gravity and Ebullition Records. Where all those young, passionate bands played bold and edgy music and eventually invented screamo without having the faintest idea.
If you want a physical version of the EP, be patient. The first run of tapes and CDs sold out, but the band has some at shows and more are on the way. Follow BSDJ on Instagram for more information.
Checkout the EP here : beforeyouleave
Writer : @borderlinefu
Editor : @just_reidz
03/25/24
BRAT
Photo Cred 📷: @generationgreta
After a few years of touring, EPs, and bedazzling their name across the metal scene, New Orleans four-piece, BRAT, are finally bestowing their debut album, Social Grace, onto the people this Friday, March the 15th. With a polished sound and grim lyrics, the album is 10 tracks of genre-fluid ear candy that combine into a single gritty experience with a smooth flow that’s gift-wrapped in pink. Brat’s brutality and dark themes in pageant-ready packaging is giving the hardcore, death metal, and grind scenes no choice but to clear space for what has generally been rejected or left out of them thus far.
Recorded with James Whitten of Hightower Studio, this album acts as proof of BRAT’s reluctance to be genre-confined, achieving a sense of freedom while still coming out cohesive. From short, sweet, and fast tracks such as Ego Death to the more defined and death-y Slow Heat, the album keeps you interested, with catchy riffs and impressive drumming acting as the reliable consistency. While being just as much fun as previous releases, Social Grace is clearly elevated, which generates excitement for the direction the group is heading and what may be in store for future music. As explained by guitarist Brenner Moate, the album “was a much more collaborative effort, which has resulted in a more dynamic sound. We took a lot of inspiration from the bands we’ve toured with, as we are constantly inspired by the musicians we meet and come to be friends with”.
Fun is certainly a main component to BRAT’s music, aesthetic, and approach, as they break down the walls of what’s to expect in heavy genres, and make a point to welcome people of all kinds into their realm with open arms. As Moate states, “We just want people to have fun at our shows, and everything we do is for that reason. The aesthetic is just a tool for that, as it tends to disarm people into letting go and just having a good time, regardless of who they are, how they identify, or whatever may be going on in their life…
“FOR ONE THERE’S NEVER ENOUGH PINK IN THE WORLD. BUT ALSO, THERE’S NOT ENOUGH BANDS OUT THERE PUTTING A GOOD TIME FIRST AND FOREMOST. THAT’S NOT TO SAY NO ONE IS (DRAIN IS A GREAT EXAMPLE) BUT I JUST WANT TO SEE MORE OF IT.”
- BRENNER, @MEET.LOCAL.SINGLES
The group’s juxtaposition between sound and imagery is one of the most celebrated and exciting parts of them. Sporting Barbie font and booty shorts while drawing on psychological horror fiction (notable on tracks such as Hesitation Wound and Truncheon) and the damnation of the Earth as key inspirations and components of their music. “Lyrically, my love for creative writing and dark literature drove the themes of futility, despair, and hopelessness that’s present on most of the songs” Moate expresses. But not all is a pit of despair in the creation of their sound, as the wholesome and productive writing and recording environment was affirmed by Brenner, who also informed that “one fun thing is for pick slides on the album, we scraped the guitar strings with the blade of a butter knife”.
Commanding a good time in a serious tone and putting on incredible live shows, this is only the start for BRAT as they plan for a slew of upcoming opportunities for you to see them in person. As Moate emphasizes, this is just their debut and a beginning to a more expansive and fleshed-out discography, “we’ll see what elements we like most after beginning to play these songs live for a while, as well as what songs our fans take the most to”.
Just as excited to begin touring with this new music, you can keep up with Moate and the rest of BRAT across social media to see when they may be in a city near you, and don’t forget to tune in on March 15th for an album you won’t want to be late to.
March 15th album debuts here : Brat
Writer : @ab.bashara
Editor : @just_reidz
03/12/24
Emocat Records: A Benefit Comp for Palestine
Photo Cred 📷: @jtph0t0s
It has been over 4 months of what has effectively been a full blown assault on the Palestinian people by the Israeli government and its armed forces. Every single day innocent men, women and children are slaughtered and spun as terrorists by major news networks. As members of the DIY punk scene, a sound that was founded on the idea of opposition to the oppressor (despite whatever the revisionist have to say about it), we have a responsibility to band together and use our agency and power to not only support our siblings suffering through this hellscape, but to push back on all oppressive forces the world over. So we do what we can. We organize, we march, we show up in the ways available to us.
Emocat Records will be releasing this tape comp in benefit of the Palestinian Children’s relief Fund (PCRF). Any profits from physical or streaming sales will be donated. They’ve given us a sneak preview of the two tracks coming out. Terrifying Girls High School is a favorite of ours.
By extension, “Deadbeat” is now a favorite of ours. The band plays well in the garden of blustery sassy, snotty punk played with great urgency and taught wire intensity. The track is riddled with panicked fret scampering, reeling and blustery drumming and twangy, sharp-turn bass licks all melding and swelling together.
Local (to me) young guns Clay Birds have been making big waves since last year and for good reason. Their wink and nod play style, pays homage to multiple genres and sounds while articulating their own adolescent fury and pain in an incredibly heavy way. “Like Stuttering and Shifting” further explains my point, the track spans multiple genres and two massive emotions all in its minute twelve run time.
Unreal that we still have to beg for a nation state to stop it’s indiscriminate slaughter of innocent people and hopefully as more voices are added to this growing sentiment of unrest we can finally help put a complete stop to this maddening violence. “A Benefit Compilation for Palestine” will be available on tape and via streaming through Emocat Records on March 23rd and will feature tracks from Terrifying Girls High School, Clay Birds, Valeska Suratt, Fainting in Coils, Geronimostilton, Theodore War and onewaymirror.
Checkout their Bandcamp here : Emocat Records
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
02/22/24
solace
Photo Cred 📷: @tiretracksonherdeadlawn
The bristle of pain has a key. A resonance, some type of tangy frequency that just seems oddly saccharine before it's icy burning bitterness. solace understand this. The New York based outfit explore this concept with oh so vulnerable abandon on their debut self-titled 3 song EP.
It cannot be understated how little time this EP wastes getting to the point. “only wednesday” honors no silence other than the vacuum between play being pressed and the immediate anguished convergence hitting your ears. A short melodic pluck, then the vocals, shrill and crisp, occasionally approaching but balking before a black metal infused howl, careen into shreddy wall of sound guitars licks and terse snappy drumming. Think Knumears listening to an awful lot of Ampere. A short and sweet build up bursts straight into the songs closing moments of joined screams and buzzsaw riffs.
“i watched you die” rocks back and forth hastily shredding throat, feet and tom. Even in their slower more demure moments solace still manages to utterly crush in so much intensity, you'd think that some gravity would begin to exert itself. In a manner of speaking it still manages to as the impactful push and pull noodling plays call and response to the vocal work, guttural based undulating like a hissed gurgle caught in your throat.
It's a rare treat when you hear something so utterly enjoyable (you know what I mean), that you actually can keep it on loop for a good long while and not get tired of it. We've been looping this one quite a bit over here and I can say with absolute certainty that this is one of my favorite new projects of the year. “solace” is now available for streaming everywhere.
Checkout their Bandcamp here : solace
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
02/19/24
Pedestrian
Photo Cred 📷 : @hippiedippiedooo
We are however many some odd years removed from the birth of “crescendocore”, a term that eventually was used to mark a band following a formula of musical dynamics: slow build, triumphant release, rinse and repeat. Unfortunate, because the progenitors who were unwillingly ascribed this term had made something that was as powerful as it was fun to listen to. And despite the “magic” becoming often duplicated but hardly replicated, every now and again I’d listen to a band and think “they got it right”. Pedestrian dissolved into their long dormancy after dropping 2015’s “Healthy Ways to Die” a continuation and further exploration of the fuzzy heavy indie alternative with intensely cathartic post-rock sensibilities found on their 2013 EP “Everyone I Know Who Skis Is Dead”. After a lineup change and some retooling, Pedestrian return, not just to their roots, but to the deeply rich soil from which their influences first sprang.
“By The Grace of Outer Space” is the second single the band has released since their auspicious return, preceded by “Earth Exit”, a richly textured aural experience that meanders into wave after fountainous waves of feedback laden riffs, drums and vocals. Almost in contrast, “By The Grace” omits the wooly warmth of shoegaze for somewhat cleaner, crisper tones and atmosphere. Swapping “The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place” for “Tunnel Blanket”, the opening silence begins to crack and glint as the track begins to dilate and pause, almost as if to take a slow measured breath before fulminating into gorgeous hyperstrumming and spacey but forceful drumming. Winding down into a sequence that wouldn’t feel out of place on an early God Is An Astronaut release, the calm measured wind down feels almost like an atmospheric exit, before the guitar returns back to dot stars in the sky and sprawls the opalescent melody of exploratory wonder into your heart.
Pedestrian are a local band to me, one I very much cherished because no one was (or still really is) making music like them. To not just have the band release new music, but to also see them already eager to get back into a live environment is admittedly exciting to me, and if “By The Grace of Outer Space” and Earth Exit” are any indication of what's to come then we are possibly on the precipice of a return to form in the world of post rock, both locally and at large. We look forward to what they have in store for us next. Go stream “By The Grace” now, available on all streaming platforms.
meth.
Photo Cred 📷 : @vanessaivaladez
What do you do with shame? Internalise it? Have it live in you and metastasise, become a cancer of self-loathing that feeds on low self esteem and ultimately consumes you? Or do you take ownership of it, hold yourself accountable for your "shameful" actions, exercise self-love and self-forgiveness, and take control, reverse the cancer, as it were? Or, do you outright live in it, dive headfirst into the deep end, and in a different shade of control, sublimate its destructiveness into an act of creation that you release into the world, so that others can feel the depth of your shame, perhaps see a reflection of their own, experience catharsis, and be inspired to find a way out of the shadows and into the light.
You'd be forgiven for wondering what all that armchair psychobabble preamble is doing kicking off an album review, but bear with me, as we're talking about the new LP by Chicago multi-metal-sub-genre straddling experimental heavy band, meth., whose vocalist and lyricist, Seb Alvarez has been bedfellows with shame evidently for some considerable time and the result, 5 years after the band's last LP, 2019's 'Mother of Red Light', is an album bearing that feeling's name in ALL CAPS. It's an album that in its monolithic heaviness, uncompromisingly dread-filled and discomfiting atmosphere, and the brutal self-evisceration expressed in its lyrics, earns its portentous title with blood, tears and metaphysical terror.
A band that started as a grind and emoviolence influenced chaotic hardcore act, has over time evolved into a many-headed cerberus of noise, sludge, post-metal and metallic hardcore, seemingly hellbent on creating the most nerve-shredding, uncomfortable experience imaginable whilst still being discernibly listenable and often thrilling. With that in mind, album opener, ‘Doubt’ functions as a litmus test for the listener: it’s a riff-free exercise in rhythmic bashing, the sound of a lumbering giant chasing you down a tightening corridor, all whilst Seb Alvarez trades screams and growls pulled from the bile-soaked depths of his being about having no sense of self. It’s anti-music, a gauntlet thrown down: get through this and you might enjoy what meth. have in store for you; find yourself turned off by its sheer ugliness, its seeming unmusicality, its inexorable beat like the deafening sound of death’s clock ticking down, and you should probably take it as a sign that you might be a bit too faint-hearted for SHAME.
Across the album’s seven tracks, meth. never let up the intensity; this is dissonant, confrontational music that captures and reflects the emotional and mental turmoil that Seb Alvarez went through whilst grappling with addiction, undiagnosed bi-polar disorder and the consequences of his own resultant problematic behaviour. Whether it’s the exhausting blast beats that drag ‘Compulsion’ across the floor, the nausea-inducing waves of guitar squall on ‘Blush’ or the mathy, anxiety-inducing chaos that opens ‘Cruelty,’ the aim at all times seems to be to disorientate, to discomfort, to disturb. SHAME is in that sense, a visceral portrait of one man’s extreme sense of alienation from self, of disgust at his thoughts and actions, all soundtracked by intricately sound-designed aural hellscapes, in which songs seems to be in the process of pulling themselves apart as they are being performed.
Amongst all of these challenging compositions, however, are truly thrilling moments. The album’s title track sees Alvarez embody and give voice to shame itself, trading clean shouted vocals with gut-wrenching roars. The band locks into a queasy noise-rock groove, creepy synths float overhead, and the listener is left positively reeling. Closer, ‘Blackmail,’ shape-shifts over its 8 minute runtime, pummeling us with discordant chugs and elaborate drumfills, bringing us to the verge of a panic attack with perpetually rising guitar notes, tightening like a noose, slowing down then speeding up at the apparent whim of jumbled, intrusive thoughts. It’s bewildering, exhausting, but undeniably effective, with the build to the final crescendo being particularly wrenching in its unbearable tension. However, above and beyond everything else on SHAME, the highlight is the towering track at the centre of the tracklisting, ‘Give In.’ Immediately differentiating itself from the rest of the album with its idiosyncratic drum sound and pattern, and the guitar that buzzes from channel to channel like a swarm of robotic bees, ‘Give In’ injects the noise-rock and grindy industrial post-metal aesthetic with a bit of modern era Swans style post-rock. “It’s growing inside” is the repeated refrain whilst the band conjures up a perfect storm of oppressive sound that somehow manages to be as emotionally rousing as the lyrics are a terrifying portrayal of giving into one’s worst impulses.
With SHAME, Alvarez and his bandmates Zack Farrar, Michael McDonald, Nathan Spainhower, and Andrew Smith have peered into the recesses of the human psyche, have rifled through the bloody viscera of our darkest thoughts and feelings and sublimated self-destructiveness into an an act of brave and often brilliant creation. It’s something to be proud of, something to offset a little bit of that shame.
Purchase and listen to SHAME here: meth.
Writer : @stopcallingthemscreamo
Editor : @just_reidz
02/04/24
Jockey
Photo Cred 📷 : @moskvisual
I think we’re reaching some kind of wild critical mass with bands advancing cross-genre pollination in such a deftly but finessed way. I say this because during the runtime of “Time For You To Bury Me”, there occurs this almost divine marriage of punk and post hardcore, of emo and fuzzed out rock that I know has been done before, but sounds so good it feels new.
The feelings evoked are one of laughable misery, vocals sings and screams with a unique despondence that somehow carries this self deprecating smirk, no tongue in a cheek but a mouth open and wailing as the wink and nod of "Old Parallels" opens with uptempo punk chords wrapped in a buttery sweet rhythm section that seems to delicately melt and fuzz out with the vocals and drums.”Tail End of Mourning”, one of two singles to come out the EP, feels like a shoegaze track, but hits like if Joyce Manor was more obsessed with Dinosaur Jr than Morrissey.
“Early Grey” hums and whistles like a particularly cold fall morning, one that just that inch past being uncomfortably cold. A fuzzy wheezing guitar wiles and winnows through vocals that wrap around it like an ill fitting scarf. Album closer “A Spring Burial”, finds choruses of burials adjacent to garden walls, spiraling into Unwound-esque riffage. A pointedly unsomber discordance that very much feels like the shock of Spring melting a winter's thaw to reveal gravestones. In one shot, “time for you to bury” feels like 3 different releases given one focused effort. It winds and gnashes, it sulks and glowers, it gasps and screams and it all feels so fucking real all at once, that I was certain I’d seen my own breath by its end.
If I couldn't think of another reason to tell you how good Jockey is, I'd be left with the simplicity of saying: you absolutely should be watching this band. What they've captured on their “Time For You To Bury Me” reminds me all at once of Temple, Joyce Manor and Title Fight fighting for control of the body they all inhabit. So I say let them fight, let the spring come and the winter thaw away and when I get the chance to stroll through some damp fields on a sidecast cloudy day, you can bet this EP will be looping in my ears. Being released by the always wonderful Oliver Glenn Records as well as the dashingly handsome Jean Scene on vinyl, you can hear the full EP when it drops January 26th.
Checkout their two singles here : Jockey
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
01/22/24
Our Future Is An Absolute Shadow
Photo Cred 📷 : @zegema_beach (Image is from Apostles of Eris at ZBR Fest 2023)
Hyper is the force that can pack so much into songs that find their comfortable if not abrupt end at the 2 minute mark. And hyper is only one of many adjectives to describe Our Future Is An Absolute Shadow’s debut LP. It’s certainly been a long time coming and the density of the structure does not belie the immensity of the material. The band have long been a ghostly figure on the internet since their initial inception back in 2020.
The collaborative concoction of insane screamo dynamics cage-fighting emoviolence sensibilities on an undercard of immense desperation and climate anxiety is a project started by their drummer Adrian and became a collective brainchild including David Norman and Jesse Mowery, three absolute legends in the scene who’ve been heavy in their influence and shaping of our sound. Demarcating a point in the bands existence, the album slowly warbles before it wrenches, punches and kicks with opener “Mimitwo”. The soft pluck and stride of guitars immediately bursts into a thick and punchy riff, before slow grooving into soft choruses and heady throaty screams. “Sometimes When I’m Falling” sees a quick pivot and shift into a start stop shredfest calls back to mid-2000s punchy chugs with married unions of shouted and screamed vocals.
Our Future can rip and flurry with the best of them, but the overall atmosphere of the band as a whole helps make the album what it is. A opalescent mystique encases the project, and with little internet presence they fly more on the radar of genre purists and fanatics than the general screamo zeitgeist. At least that may have been the case with their 2021 debut EP and an excellent split with criminally underrated Komarov. With tracks like “Strike Zone Pro Box Set” and “The French Say Brobaire” the band cuts clear that change is the name of the game but heavy and fast are still the referees.
Album closer “Our Future Is An Absolute Nightmare”, wraps the whole package up with a neatly discordant bow. The longest track on the album it whiles and wanders with classic emocore singing uncertain chord fingering and masked spoken word, cutting into throaty shouts and dreams traded in a call and response with pounding percussives and sourly sweet melodies. Halting midway, a tonal change foggily emerges, with soulful guitar work and plinking undulations. It reads in plays in concert with the track title, giving full shape the the haunting uncertainty that pervades the album.
Our Future Is An Absolute Shadow is a band of many faces, largely because the true face of the band is largely obscured. Even with the players known, the mystery flourishes and eludes being pinned in one place. A sound this full between three legends of the scene and featuring guest spots from the likes of Burial Etiquette and Vi Som Alskade Varandra Sa Mycket can only come from people who hold not only the sound close to their hearts, but can also project their view of our rapidly unraveling world out on full display for all to see.
The full album is out for listening now, with the 12’’ vinyl available via Zegema Beach Records.
Checkout the LP here : Zegema Beach Records
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
01/15/24
Mt.Ida
Photo Cred 📸 : @jaredcwood
It’s in the heaving air of winter where we often find our most solemn moments exhaled before us. The vaporous gasps we can’t hold back seem to exist if only for a handful of seconds, before merging with all and vanishing from a perceptible realm. It’s the inherent sanguine nature of winter, everything around us dies, the cloying and desperate grappling of life succumbs to the turn of the year. Mt.Ida, one of Philadelphia’s finer exports in our scene, mirror this and in response extend a warm hand in defiance of it.
“Between the Ashes” strums something familiar, a guitar tone not unknown to many of us, but instead of affording its common stark and bleak nature treat it as kindling, building tension and friction. Echoes of the legendary Raein should only be heard as just that, as the track lifts itself into comfortably melodic and hopefully resonant bass, complimenting drums that crackle and endure. Half-tempo spoken word seeks out understanding, empathizing with the unforgiving iciness of uncertainty. Screams that connect in anguish are actually a call to live as repeated choruses of I believe in life (again) / I believe in life (again), invoke the wishes of what many of us wish we had said sooner.
I’ve been eyeballing Mt.Ida for quite some time and attempting to counteract my shifting impatience for new music with the belief that they would bring something as wonderful to the table as their 2021 self-titled debut. It’s not with smug satisfaction but a confirmed joy that I can tell you they have in fact kept us waiting for good reason. “In Silence” drops in full on December 15th, with tapes coming out from some of our favorite labels, Oliver Glenn Records and Jean Scene. Make sure to grab one as they are sure to go fast.
Check out their previous single “Sacristy” on Bandcamp : Mt.Ida
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
11/27/23
Closet Witch
Photo Cred 📸 : @_scumlxrd
This week we’re incredibly excited to premiere not just a new single but the brand new music video for Closet Witch’s “Haunting and Releasing” directed and created by Iowan local legend, Jeff Carl. The forthcoming album due out on Zegema Beach Records, is already shaping up to be one of the heaviest of the year.
Those in the know have been eyeballing Iowa’s Closet Witch for quite some time, but it's largely been in recent years that their buzz has reached the levels of what the band deserves. "Haunting and Releasing" gives the aural texture of a possession, the static spectral layer of fuzz lays thinly on top of violent shrieks (featuring long time friend Frankie Furillo of The Central), mountain sundering guitars and bass with terrifying drums that refuse to relent. The music video echoes this, as jarring shapes and cuts chaotically accompany the brutal sonics, gnashing and stuttering with color, frequency and hum. Interspersed with landscapes, random and sometimes unsettling imagery, the visuals captured compliment the disorienting feeling of both the track and the title, before its sudden and viciously abrupt end.
Closet Witch vocalist Mollie had a few words to say about their new track..
“It was really cool to have two long time friends collaborate for those tracks...Frankie did vocals on the second and he's just been one of my favorite people for some time now. And then to have Jeff make a video was super cool, too, as I've known him for most of my time living in Iowa and he's just a creative individual who marches to the beat of his own drum. Both an honor to have involved. Lyrically the songs are along my usual lines, borderline story telling mixed with journalistic emotional release ...Topics relating to personal traumas that I'm sure many can in some way relate to, unfortunately, and that a lot of us find shame inducing to lament on or even bring up but cause indefinite ache in how hard they are to overcome on our own.”
Closet Witch are a band we've been eyeballing for some time and 2021's B-side EP Mellifocation only had us more excited for what was to come. However with "Haunting and Releasing" I'm beginning to feel that I am just not prepared for the assuredly full on envelopment of what's sure to be a deliciously hellish and achingly emotional full length.
"Chiaroscuro" is out November 3rd on all platforms but you can preorder one of two gorgeous vinyl variants now, released via our friends at Zegema Beach Records as well as other incredibly sick variants available through Moment of Collapse Records, Circus of The Macabre Records and Sassbologna Records for European distribution. Give the video a watch and preorder the vinyl today.
Checkout their most recent previously released new single here : Closet Witch
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
10/23/23
Aren't We Amphibians
Photo Cred 📸 : @jessssss.o
How do you hold off on expressing something deeply personal to people you don’t know? I wanted to articulate so much how the new Aren’t We Amphibians EP, “Emergency, Exit” feels as much about speaking to others as it does to yourself. In that rhetorical nature that only an emo band and your speakers can provide, it asks a classic question in a not so quiet new way: “Is it possible to be simply better off alone?”.
Starting in a strikingly different sonic direction from their previous EP, the opening chords of “Yard Work “ plant the seed of a denatured style of emo, stolidly marching, building to something atonal and ominous before cutting sideways into familiar territory. Vocally reminiscent of early Snowing and later Algernon Cadwallader, the drumming feels arena sized with the bass bouncing along in time. The anthemic nature doesn’t try to run from its roots but instead embraces them. Again this undercurrent of discomfort and urgency plays itself out on “Built For Bugs”, before the rest of the track “begins” bringing in the more traditional sound.
You'll find this pattern here and there in the EP, an undercut of panic chords and chugs with half-step blast beats punctuate or christening different tracks throughout the EP, from the dynamic solemn cut of "Lazlo" to the EP single "Carrion", the forceful nature of feeling of discerning shaky ground from bad knees when it comes to your daily headspace are called into question. For me it was the driving, winding oomph that came from "Lobster Party" that sealed this release as one of my favorites of the year.
If Read the Room was the band proudly declaring their presence to the world as an emo band, Emergency, Exit is them sonorously announcing that emo is merely a qualifier, that the sound and feeling carry a more expansive yet nuanced energy to it all. You can listen to their single “Carrion” streaming on Spotify now with the full EP releasing October 3rd, with tapes available through Thumbs Up Records.
Listen to Read the Room on Bandcamp : Aren’t We Amphibians
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
10/02/23
Coma Regalia / Snag Split
Photo Cred 📸: @doveonfilm
I love splits. I know we’ve already gone over this before but seriously. It bears repeating. Splits are a healthy measurement of any scene.
Two bands either from similar or differing circles coming together to deliver one solid batch of music, forging alliances, friendships, bridges, whatever. It’s something that I’ve always loved about our scene. So when I heard about the Coma Regalia / Snag split of course I became incredibly excited. Already legends in their own rights, I knew that by joining forces, they’d produce an instant classic. And even after thinking all that, I still was blown away.
Wasting no time, Snag immediately rip into their side with “Lyla”, an explosive yet tightly wound track, with ramping, driving drumming and stalked-down-an-alley basslines. Shifting gears immediately “Tunnels” kicks out punishing blast beats and guttural black metal growls before transforming into a shifting and melodically wrapped blending of classic screamo and hardcore. The springy, bouncing scales of “On the Human Condition” lead into a sharp clatter of drums and shrieking guitar, as an almost muted background chorus chants along. The track then wheels and winds into electric riffs and bass ripped from the deeper bowels of the earth.
Once we make it to “Evelyn” we’re met by soft plucks of guitar chords morphing into a wall of noise that slowly ease out into a soft melody. The moments like these, found throughout different points in Snag’s side have built small moments of quiet reflection before building back into huge emotional swells of rhythm and chorus. Snag wrap up their run of tracks with “A Familiar Feeling” opened by harp like riffs and atmospheric strums and licks, building and ramping before cutting left into anthemic instrumentations and powerful shouts featuring awakebutstillinbed, as Snag’s closing cries of ‘I’m sorry / It’s too late’ begin to fade out with only a sharp warning tone remaining.
That tone connects the thread into “Initiate Transfer” the first track on Coma Regalia’s side of the split. Huge arena style guitar strums and drum hits switch quickly into intensely emotional singing and shouting. “Fire/Wall” brings the throaty horse vocals into the 90s punk realm of hardcore meeting the fretboard dancing and emo/screamo twists and turns as only Coma can provide. Driving guitar lines absolutely crackle with dissonance as the drumlines fill the air with huge clatters and tight crashes. “Redirect” opens with what has to be one of the catchiest and most infectious meshing of sung and screamed vocals that I’ve heard all year, going from wildly melodic to cacophonously delicious in seconds.
Diffused and distorted spoken word hangs heavily as the chorus darts quietly sung in the background, all while the instruments wind up for the latter half of the track, erupting into a massive deluge of screams, riffs and drum hits. Barely a reprieve is given before “Algo Error” immediately picks up, carrying the melody along, equally rife with all of the incredible chaos found throughout the split. The midsections stuttering and stop start instrumentals give way to warring sonics and screams before kicking the door open to the final track on the split “Log Off”. There’s almost a B52s quality to the chorus, bouncing between 80s hardcore and the ethereal nature of Oingo Boingo, before the final droning guitars slides into silence.
Both bands cut an absolutely monumental set of tracks, easily the best we’ve heard yet. Snag’s white knuckle grip on the alarm bell of climate crisis shakes as aggressively and earnestly as ever, while Coma Regalia’s side is rife with the urgency of unplugging and feeling the air and sun available to you only a few feet away. We really could not get enough of this split and in a year of incredible drops this easily shot its way to the top of our list.
You can stream the entire split in full when it’s released October 6th via Middleman Records in the US and Shove Records in the EU, but you can stream Algo Error by Coma Regalia below.
You can preorder the vinyl here : Middleman Records
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
09/25/23
son of deni
Photo Cred 📸: @vvvydmy
In our current marvelous period of screamo we’re experiencing, it can be a uniquely difficult task to not only make yourself heard within any given scene but especially to do so overseas. Son of deni, calling both Belarus and Poland home, are very much incredible at what they do, and will certainly be grabbing your attention very soon, with their debut ep “Sporty”.
The warbling rhythmics of a clean strummed guitar tone on “bubble” both as a statement piece of the band and as it is their purposeful setting of intention. It meanders, and whistles at times, foreshadowing an album rife with melody and intensity. Staccatoed instruments pluck and thwack before a visceral scream wrenches from some throat somewhere.
“leg day” is easily one of my favorites off the EP and their most recent single. Many of the trapping of euro skramz melded brilliantly with midwest emo, to create a melodically fun but potently emotional packed track, opining the vanishing of one another from our shared experiences. Twinkles float and collide with stuttering drums and stuttering guitar and bass before plinking along in a classic 2010’s emo fashion.
Closing track “day after leg day” builds an unnerving sunniness with its riffs, and clattering drums and bass. Suddenly the track pivots to buzzing guitarwork and shredding basslines as a chorus begins to shout and scream ‘the world beside the windows seems too vast / and it asks me to remain strong / but on / Sunday, I don't want to go anywhere / I don't even want to get out of bed.’ (Translated for us by the band).
“Sporty” as a piece of the genre is certainly a solid album, but it's the instrumentation that truly steals the show. Son of deni have composed something that can both pull on the heart strings while also inviting multiple re listens to catch every nuance and note found through these five incredible tracks. “Sporty” is available now via No Funeral Records in Canada & BSDJ in Japan.
We look forward to what the band has in store for us next.
Live Longer Burn Everything
As we all make our way through the daily struggles and trials of living of this capitalist hellscape, we all are trying our best to get by and cope. However, as we lean on our loved ones, on our friends, on our community, we see a bit more light in the day than we did before. Live Longer Burn Everything embodies screamo in its most classic form, as an active form of defiance and with their latest single “Can U Trust Yr Brain?”, the latest cut from their impending debut EP “A Flash of Light And Then…”., they capture this feeling perfectly.
Reminiscent of something from the 2000s era myspace era of diy screamo, the twinkling and plinking that opens the track gently obfuscates the audio clip playing before launching into immense dueling screams and ascendant guitar riffs. Oozing both catharsis and passion, the chorus of ‘Being taken / Somewhere away / Being taken / Somewhere away from this place’ sinks just that bit deeper, screamed and yelled in woven disharmony. Sung in patterned form, punctuated by shouts, the song finds its climax resurging with massive riffs and absolutely gargantuan drumming taking the climax of the track to anthemic heights. There's even a classic mid-2000s "hidden track" moment that immediately took me back my Purevolume / Myspace days.
Within our culture we find safety, even while the world seems to be dissolving in front of us. "Can U Trust Yr Brain?" is about the deeply seated piece in all of us that can exist in community and find solace from that, especially within a scene like ours. Occasionally we forget that music is simply the primary pillar of what makes punk / hardcore / screamo and other heavy music genres appealing in the first place, but once you go to a show, make a band or even start a conversation you are able to find so much more within it.
Live Longer Burn everything's debut EP will be arriving September 22nd via BIGSCREAMOMONEY, preceding their tour with fellow mates of state, A Continent Named Coma. Make sure to check the full release when it drops.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Live Longer Burn Everything
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
09/11/23
Orbit Cinta Benjamin / Flirt Split
Photo Cred 📸: @zaairul (Photo of Orbit Cinta Benjamin)
This week for New Music Monday we are incredibly excited to bring you this brand new split from two amazing bands. Flirt hail from Leipzig, Germany and have an incredibly chaotic yet catchy brand of screamo punk filling their side out, and it brings me immense amounts of stoke to hear brand new material from Kuala Lampur screamo legends Orbit Cinta Benjamin. The bands compliment each other in a way that only true dyed-in-blue titans of the genre can.
Flirt come through with a barn burner grip of songs. Fusing the punk aspect of classic german hardcore punk with the brilliance of 2000s era screamo, the melodic emo punk sprint of “Amazon Crime'' sounds like something that could easily have opened a Raein album with charred choruses and crust crackled screams leading into mid-tempo explosive songwriting. “Morsch” and “Trist” are both absolutely dripping with that classic euro skramz sound, not retrodden, but given an even finer edge and bite with Flirt’s wheeling guitar riffs, half nodded emocore drumming and resonant basslines. Closing track “Einfach So” builds a slow waltz with sparsely shouted vocals and finally swells into its huge emotional climax.
Orbit Cinta Benjamin do no slouching on their side. “Essence” kicks off with dissonant, spaced out riffs and drums building over an audio clip, exploding with panic chords and sharp screams carrying the split's urgency well. “Four Corners” slide in with cascading riffs and huge drums, bleeding into roared choruses and those trademark OCB shouts. “Harbinger” punches and winds with rollicking guitar and low thundering bass. “Chalice” has the coloring of midwest style picking and drums, before swelling into an insane wall of sound and noise, tight instrumentation and larger than life catharsis. A classic screamo waltz, metered out with the chorus of conjoined shouts and screams the track winds into quiet closing out with the other half of its earlier sample.
What’s sure to be the hottest split of the year, you can get a sneak peek at “Chalice” from Orbit Cinta Benjamin’s side. Veterans of the sound, tempered with newcomers flirt, is an absolute banger and a heavily favored conteder of ours for split of the year. This joint venture out August 21st on Tomb Tree tapes will also have a 12" vinyl available from Major Label, SM Musik, Bad Health Rec., ZilpZalp Rec and Salto Mortales Records
Pickpocket
Photo Cred 📸: @neutralshrimphotel
This week's New Music Monday finds us returning to Ohio. The scene of the often overlooked state has been something to behold in recent years and one band that's really blown us away is Columbus’ own Pickpocket. Their debut album “All These Things We Thought We Invented”, has all the makings of another sonic gem refusing to be ignored.
Album opener “New Rome” rips and shreds, winding buzzsaw guitars duel against coagulated basslines and shrieked shouts of our empires end. The exultant nature of this track feels like a feat of Caligulan feast hallmarked with Nero’s fiddling as the anxious energy overwhelmingly kicks the album off on an aggressive note.
The quiet affectation that opens of “Weather Vein”, with its beleaguered little riff and strained vocal howl evolves into sharp caterwauls of experimental punk and screamo fusion. Brazen guitars and explosive drums kick in as yells transform into screams and the circling melody of the track rings eerily familiar of something off a City of Caterpillar B-side.
“On Scrapyards” has all the atmospheric and subdued horror of a Chat Pile song, but turns all of the fever pitched existential dread into a profound dead eyed stare of consumerism and climate anxiety. The expressive desired to be buried under miles and miles of junk and garbage are delivered in a lilting deadpan, I’ve decided / I want to be buried / Under fifty miles of trash / Far away from the sky / Away from the sun / Deposited into scraps of steel / Sediment and with oils and fossils when suddenly the looping melancholy riffs roars to life amongst clattering cymbals and hoarsely drummed toms as a single voice shrieks ‘Let it bury me’. Each stanza of this track punches and laments in such pained apathy that even against its own intentions, the earnestness and fear shines through.
Pickpocket reminds me of Jimmy Eat World if they were violently possessed by the ghost of Hunter S. Thompson channeling the haunting echoes of Frail Body, the meandering experimentation of Gospel and the raucous punk nature of Cloudmouth. The eight songs spanning “All These Things We Thought We Had Invented” come together to make a singular push of frantic energy, wherein Pickpocket have captured entire realms of angst and thought all into sparse lyricism, tautly spread out interludes and hellacious shrieking and shouting. We greatly look forward to what the future holds for Pickpocket and what they may have for us next.
“All These Things We Thought We Had Invented” is available on your favorite streaming platforms now.
Checkout the album on Spotify here: Pickpocket
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
07/31/23
Sparing
Photo Cred 📸: @kaylaguilliams
This week's NEW Music Monday sees the return of an old NJAP favorite, Sparing. Their latest single, brings all the melody, harmony and sing-a-longs that we've come to know and love from the band, while heavily saturated with stanzas dropping with unknown futures.
On "Static at the End", Sparing opine on this uncertain future for themselves with splattered ink lyricism careening over infectiously delicious riffs, punctuated with rattling bass-lines and drums that could scale buildings. With echoes of mid aughts emo gilding the soaring vocals and husky shouts to round out an energetic but melancholy piece of tightly executed pop-punk, the song paints the image that a lot has changed for Zach Godwin, Sparing's primary creative wellspring. The approaching dawn of fatherhood as well as the regular tumult that faces life as a musician, the lyrics in "Static at the End" bring catchy yet stark choruses, asking whether it is best to soldier on or finally lay it all to rest.
Their latest can certainly be touted as their greatest even as a return to form, and while the bands future may be uncertain, here at NJAP we will certainly look forward to what the band may bring us next.
Checkout their new single here: Sparing
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
07/24/23