(((((OPENmind/SATURATEDbrain))))): AMPERE

Tuesday, 5 May 2015

AMPERE

Band: AMPERE

Genres: Punk / Screamo / Hardcore / Thrash
Related artists: Orchid, Bucket Full Of Teeth, Failures, Longings, Laceration, Vaccine, Demonbrother, No Faith, Ritual Mess, Won't Belong, Aerosols, The Last Forty Seconds, Montcalm, Kindling, Foreign Objects, Relics, Siamese Twins, Stop The Clock, Unicoroner and Wolves.
Country: Amherst, Massachusetts USA
Years Active: 2002-present
Song: "Diffident Dissonance"
Album: "Daïtro split"
Year: 2007
Label(s): Self Released / Ebullition Records / Moragono Records / Purepainsugar / Clean Plate Records / No Idea Records / Electric Human Project / Yellow Ghost Records / oto Records
This post's artist is from the April 2015 Mix. This is track #2.
You can download: the April Mix#4 right here or get the new May 2015 Mix#5 here.
For fans of: Maths, Ritual Mess, Wolves, Orchid, Montcalm, Carrion Spring, Loma Prieta, Ruhaeda, Kodan Armada, Textbook Traitors, Neil Perry, Bucket Full Of Teeth, Minor Threat, Tetola93, Hassan I Sabbah, Usurp Synapse, Coma Regalia, You & I, Capacities, This Ship Will Sink, Logs, Ken Burns, Outclassed, Daniel Striped Tiger and Funeral Diner aka PROPER SCREAMO.

I'm pretty sure it's a moot point to even make this post or describe this band because I'd assume everyone who likes the kind of screamo music I've been posting for the last 2 years already knows and loves this band. I mean, cripes, when I was at the 2015 Austin Blood Alliance Fest every person around me (including myself) were drooling with anticipation and comments such as "I've waited 10 years for this" were strewn about the audience. Regardless, I'm putting this up with a full discography download. I've been writing Will Killingsworth over the e-ternet and it looks like an interview will probably happen by the end of the summer. Who is Will Killingsworth? He's that fella that has been in seminal acts such as Orchid, Bucket Full Of Teeth, Vaccine, Longings and Ritual Mess. Don't forget that Andy, the drummer, also plays in Ritual Mess, Kindling and was the drummer in Wolves. Meghan is also in Longings and Relics, among others. If you are really keen to read an interview with an AMPERE member check out my interview with the vocalist (Stephen Pierce) who used to scream in The Last Forty Seconds and Montcalm here.

AMPERE's sound is both easy and difficult to describe. If you are a fan of barely controlled chaos this is for you. But there's this other side to the band I can't quite pin down. Is it the intensity? The lyrics? The slowdown jams and catchy little interludes? That's my point, they have this melodic undertone that rises to the top and evens out the disjointed speed with both a pummeling and accessible listen. Beside from being amazing, AMPERE has a redeeming tendency to release splits with some of the greatest screamy hardcore bands of all time. Let's quickly list a few; Funeral Diner, Welcome The Plague Year, Raein, Daïtro and Off Minor. Seriously? I've had these splits (minus the Raein split) for years now and looking at that list still blows my mind.

Okay, if I've got to quickly describe the band, AMPERE plays emotionally driven chaotic hardcore with screamy vocals and strong social-political lyrics. The music generally rips the listener new ear holes, and can probably be likened to some thrashy and grindy punk/hardcore with a mixture of Orchid, Wolves, Montcalm and some newer acts such as Maths, Coma Regalia and Capacities. Sometimes layered in, over or after, are the melodic and interesting sections that are generally what sets the band aside from others who are far less engaging. Peak is the wrong word, but the band's 2006-2007 material shows them at their strongest so I'd recommend starting there if you've never heard AMPERE.

Let's take a quick look at a few of my all-time favourites.

"A New Dialect" is very Wolves sounding after a ripping first 18 seconds. The final third of "My Favorite Movie" is super grooving following the really cool guitar riff at 12 and 17 seconds. "No Miracle Here" has a Usurp Synapse/Neil Perry-esque jam that will have you swaying along to the final minute of the song, "I am only DNA!".

"Abject Failure" might be the band's crowning achievement. The pickup at the 30-second mark is a thing of beauty, while the first half is a relentless onslaught of frenzied, screamy hardcore.

"Now We Rise, and We are Everywhere" reminds me of Logs, Daniel Striped Tiger and Wolves and is the most reflective track on the band's first LP which was also issued on a sweet 3"cd that I've posted for sale here. 'All Our Tomorrow's End Today' is an album which many would call their crowning achievement, but not me. It's really good and all, but the Wolves split and Daïtro splits take the cake for me.

"Inantiquity" is very soft for an AMPERE song and therefore it's one of my favourites. It's a brooding epic that'll have you banging your head along with a fist in the air. "At its Heart and at its Head" instrumentally screams Orchid on 'Gatefold', especially during the second half of that glorious track. "When our buildings topple we will meet in the wreckage among ashen remains we'll be burning ember." Amazing lyrics, amazing placement, amazing screams. Fucking goddamn amazing.

From the Daïtro split 7" (which is beautifully decorated and I have for sale from my personal collection here) the unreal "Diffident Dissonance" might be my favourite AMPERE cut. The raw energy combines with stop-start rhythms, a myriad of guitar parts and screams that'll make you want to instantly revolt. "Escapism" rounds out the split (actually, it's the first song of the two) and also has to be one of my favourites by the band. It starts to really build like a tidal wave at 40 seconds in and crashes at 1:07. Absolutely breathtaking.

I love how Stephen is able to really belt out thick screams on tracks like "Conquest Success" and most of 'Like Shadows' but still reverts to his earlier Montcalm sounding vocals that break into a softer mid-90s sounding talking/scream for which "Diffident Dissonance" and "At its Heart and at its Head" are prime examples. As mentioned above, the newest 'Like Shadows' LP is a very apt title, as the record is very dark and angry sounding. This is exemplified in songs such as "Escapism Pt.II" and "Centuries Fled" as the restraint and melodic sections have basically been tossed to the wayside in favour of pure aggression and anger. "Tiny Victories" might be the lone track to harness some of the more accessible, slower vibes but it's still bitter and angry sounding.

I have my own personal list of amazing AMPERE songs and they are listed here:
"Away From Bright Lights"
"Escapism" & "Diffident Dissonance"
"Abject Failure"
"Now We Rise, and We are Everywhere" & "The Jailors Speak of Freedeom"
"Conquest Success"
"Escapism Pt.II", "Centuries Fled", "Statement of Capitulation" & "Tiny Victories"
"At its Heart and at its Head", "Wormwood, Radiation" & "Inantiquity"
"My Favourite Movie", "A New Dialect", "A Letter to a Friend"
"No Miracle Here", "My Hands Are Shaking My Mind Is Made Up", "Your Still Life" & "Up the Contrast"

If you don't have it already, grab the mp3 discography I've posted from my personal collection (as in I transferred most of the vinyl records by myself) as a download here. I'd also recommend watching the 15 minute full set video of AMPERE playing live at the ABA Fest, which is embedded near the bottom of this post. AMPERE forever.

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DISCOGRAPHY
Click )==>here<==( to download the band's complete discography in mp3 form.

2002 - Demo cassette/7"EP

2003 - Wolves split 7"EP

2004 - All Our Tomorrows End Today 3"cd/10"EP

2005 - Welcome The Plague Year split 5"EP

2006 - Live at Dead Air Studios (split w/Daniel Striped Tiger, Wasteland and Death To Tyrants) 11"LP
2006 - First Recordings 7"LP
2006 - Das Oath split cd/12"LP
2006 - Sinaloa split cd/12"LP

2007 - Funeral Diner split 9"EP
2007 - Daïtro split 7"EP
2007 - Ringers split 7"EP

2008 - The First Five Years cdLP
2008 - Off Minor split 7"

2011 - Like Shadows cd/12"LP

2015 - Raein split 7"EP

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(2002) AMPERE - "No Miracle Here" (from 'Demo')