Band: SEVENTEEN AGAIN
Genres: Punk / Noise Rock / Hardcore / Metal / ScreamoRelated artists: The Reptilian, Ackely Kid, Forget The Times and...one more that won't be mentioned.
Country: Kalamazoo, Michigan USA
Years Active: 2012-present
Song: "Soak Up The Sun"
Album: "Invoke"
Year: 2014
Label(s): Zegema Beach Records / The Ghost Is Clear Records / Black Lake Records
This post's artist is from the April 2014 Mix. This is track #4.
You can download the April 2014 Mix#4 right here.
For fans of: Cassilis, Back When, The Now, Loma Prieta, Pg.99, Deadguy, Youth Funeral, Ampere, Foxmoulder, Rats Into Robots, Phoenix Bodies, Dolcim, Forstella Ford, Cease Upon The Capitol, Bucket Full Of Teeth, Moxiebeat, Ruhaeda, Litany For The Whale, The Setup, Takaru, A Light In The Attic, In First Person, This Ship Will Sink, Carrion Spring, Mercy Ties, Towers, Ed Gein, Spires, The Assistant, Majority Rule, Ruptures, Converge and Tentacles.
SEVENTEEN AGAIN are fucking unreal. The band started in Kalamazoo during the summer of 2012 with the initial intention of playing with Brok (who is now in Shoto, check their live set here) who was the one who originally came up with the name SEVENTEEN AGAIN...which was meant to make searching for the band a frustrating experience thanks to the likes of Zach Efron and Matthew Perry. If you like the crushing beauty of bands such as Back When, Ampere, Loma Prieta, Dolcim, Rats Into Robots and This Ship Will Sink you are going to absolutely love this band.
The 9-track, 14-minute album is akin to The Now in that I can listen to the entire thing on repeat 5 times in a row, no problem. The album is extremely fluid and the songs were recorded in such a way that each track bleeds into the next. The back-and-forth vocals help solidify the structure of the songs and aid them in becoming more memorable/catchy, but in general this is noisy/screamy hardcore with the occasional metal element.
Track 1 = "Between The Lines" is chaotic and screamy and heavy romp funneled into 1-minute. The last half of this track bares resemblance to Rats Into Robots/Dolcim spacey riffs before SEVENTEEN AGAIN blast into back-and-forth screaming and a solo that is strangled before each note can take hold. This really sets the tone for the rest of the album - heavy, caustic, acidic screamo laced with a dual-headed poisonous vocal attack that has got to be the band's signature, says I.
Track 2 = "Around The Edges" has a rough and gritty vibe until the 30-second mark, when a huge breakdown drops on your head with dueling vocals that exemplify the band's milieu, tying the two very different screams together in the same vocal pattern, intertwining each as they go. If your not sold by this track, you might as well stop. Pfff, fat chance of that.
Track 3 = "Trevelyn" is a disjointed and melodic wreck not unlike 'My Colours'-era Cassilis which figuratively comes apart at the seams around 0:55 and disintegrates into the next track. This song showcases the lower-end screaming/yelling/growling/whatever and this style really takes the reigns with abandon on this track.
Track 4 = "When In Rome" slides in on feedback and immediately sounds like a post-punk version of some of the newer Locktender stuff, with a scratchy melodic riff that seems awkward but fits at the same time. The vocals are more varied here than on any other song with talking, crooning, singing and wailing as well as their signature back-and-forth screaming. The guitar riff at 1 minute is an excellent hook with one of the few obviously melodic straightforward (although still ) before heading back into verse numba 2. Then feeeeeedback as we die and descend into...
Track 5 = "When In Hell", which starts with a screeching guitar, bouncy bass and some great drum work that builds the rhythm that kicks in immediately and lingers for almost a minute through Dolcim/Rats Into Robots-sounding wailing/spacey guitars territory. It's a very driving build until it's climax at around the 48-second mark when the band moves it into high gear, especially on the drums. Love the drum fills on this track.
Track 6 = "Cure Light Wounds" is one of those tracks where it seems like a million things are happening simultaneously. It's at times like this that I remember this is a group of seasoned musicians, so the attention to detail within a swirling mix of chaos shouldn't be all that surprising. This song also is peppered with sound manipulations that give it a very abrasive feel.
Track 7 = "Billy Yank" is one of the strongest tracks, which again incorporates the swirling guitars and anthemic vocals (still screaming/growling) with a massive bass riff that reverberates and helps carry the haunting lyrics of, "I'm stuck in a story, someone else's story, while mine sits aside. No, I don't want to face it," before being catapulted into tangents and fills that work extremely well as a cohesive whole. Again, this is all held together by that circling bass that seems to orbit the song and keep it all anchored down. Those drums ain't hurtin', either. Instrumentally, this is the most diverse on the album.
Track 8 = "Johnny Reb" is the closest thing to straight up hardcore/punk that the band has attempted, clocking in at less than a minute. Almost the entire first half of the song sounds like the influences were culled from late 80s hardcore and laid out in a relatively simplistic yet effective fashion. The vocal freak-out from 0:30-0:45 is awesome, as the vocals sound shrouded in emotion, whether that be excitement or anger is almost irrelevant.
Track 9 = "Soak Up The Sun" is a perfect closer and the song I posted on the omsb mix. Upon first listening to the album this was definitely my favourite, as right off the bat SEVENTEEN AGAIN pull out some of their best (and most accessible) material. This is an off-kilter, violent and engaging number that will get your attention immediately with those venomous vocals being spat directly into your ear canals, "Fading softly! No, I can't take it anymore!". Then the bouncy discordant riff/breakdown (again, with swirling bass!) jumps in before the song trails off into feedback. And thus, fini.
SEVENTEEN AGAIN's debut LP 'Invoke' is an overall uncomfortable experience that any aggressive hardcore/metallic screamo fan will relish. I was insanely lucky that Bobby of The Ghost Is Clear came to me with this. Bobby, you fucking rock almost as much as SEVENTEEN AGAIN.
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DISCOGRAPHY
2014 - Invoke 12"LP (preview here)
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(2014) SEVENTEEN AGAIN - "Soak Up The Sun" (from 'Invoke')
(2014) SEVENTEEN AGAIN - "Billy Yank" (from 'Invoke')
(2014) SEVENTEEN AGAIN - "Cure Light Wounds" (from 'Invoke')
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SEVENTEEN AGAIN additional links
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