Monday 1 April 2019

TRAINWRECK

BandTRAINWRECK
GenresPunk / Hardcore / Metallic Hardcore / Post-Hardcore / Post-Metal
Related artists: Eaves, Glasses, The 244GL, Man The Change, The Tidal Sleep, Wire Love, Knifefight and Engrave.
CountryGERMANY
Years Active2005-2015
Song: "Dust From Our Fingertips"
Album: "Trainwreck"
Year: 2006
For fans ofZann, EavesLentic Waters, I Not Dance, Locktender, Cassilis, Lamantide, I Am A Curse, Perth ExpressBökanövsky, Euglena, Greyskull, Spires, Niboowin, Birds In Row, Belladone, Engineer, Minerva Superduty, Litany For The Whale, Protestant and Furnace.
Label(s): Self Released / React With Protest / Heart On Fire Records / Rockstar Records / The Charming Man Records / Vitriol Records / Yskalnari Records / Adagio830 / Moment Of Collapse Records
This post's artist is from the March 2019 Mix. This is track #7.
You can download: the March 2019 Mix#3 right here or get the new April 2019 Mix#4 here.

TRAINWRECK existed between 2005 and 2015, playing intense, epic and driving hardcore out of Germany. They shared members with Eaves (who I reviewed years ago in this post) as well as Glasses and The Tidal Sleep, among others but shared sound most with the aforementioned band.

The band's first EP 'Trainwreck' is beyond good, it is the best thing they ever put out, in my opinion. "The Charme of Flickering Lights" opens with a minimal guitar that the band build upon by adding layer upon layer until 1:34 when the song hits full swing, although the breakdowns at two minutes and again at the close are mindblowing. Fans of I Not Dance, Zann and early Lentic Waters will most certainly get a kick out of this. As awesome as "Good Bye Bloodsuckers" is, it's the slow, chill second-half that I love the most. "Dust From Our Fingertips" also has a great midsection but slow and chill it is not. "You Can't Fake the Funk" blazes by in only 39 seconds, while my favourite "Gravity Shift" is over four minutes of galactic metalcore and boasts some seriously bombastic stuff that I can't help but scream along to at the 45-second mark.

Their 2007 'Comadre split' is thicker and more straight-forward with less breakdowns and harsher vocals. The following year they were included on a ridiculous '4-Way split' with Ghostlimb, Zann and Perth Express, which has the band taking an even darker and crustier route, nearly matching Perth Express in sound. "for medications only" is a ripper while "who will survive and what will be left of them" is epic as fuck.

In 2009 the splits stopped and the band's second half of their discography were standalone releases. The first was 'of concrete canyons and inner wastelands', a further exploration of the subterranean caverns of metallic hardcore. Opener "less than nothing" is punishing, but not as earth-shuddering as "we must run, we must run, we must run" and that prodigious wall of sound - except maybe closer "mistakes and misdirections", a five-and-a-half minute romp through venomous screaming, pummeling drums, hellish bass and guitars so dense that they have their own gravitational pull. I find myself coming back to this record almost as much as their self titled debut, so definitely check this out.

'if there is light it will find you' houses five tracks and was released in 2011. I have a sick 12" copy with interchangeable covers in a die-cut jacket, but the music is even better than the art/packaging. After a short, ambient intro we are leveled with "crooked rooms" and that deathly breakdown after 1:30. The brooding build of "smaller and smaller" during the second half is probably the highlight of this EP, cuz that shit is amazing, and the vocals and instrumentals are uncharacteristic of the band but they do it so well, despite the vocals being spoken/shouted and the guitars pulling off some nice, twinkly, Swedish screamo noodles.

The slight inclinations of progression found on the final two EP tracks continue onto the band's final release and only full length titled 'Old Departures, New Beginnings', an 11-track romp of slightly matured and always punishing TRAINWRECK output. Tracks such as "Time Erases Everything", "Apnea" and "New beginnings" (a piano track) show the growth and fine-tuning the band did over their final few years. You will still find outright fits of power and chaos in "Summarized existence", "Splitting the seams", "Heartless" and many others. It's a great finish to the band's life and a banger of a record, I just don't find it has the same staying power as their three previous endeavors. A year after this was released (in 2015) TRAINWRECK disbanded and played their final show which was filmed and I've linked below. I wish I could have seen this band live, it must have been ridiculous.

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

2006 - Trainwreck cd/12"EP (download here)

2007 - Comadre split 12"EP (download here)

2008 - 4-Way split 12"EP w/GhostlimbZann & Perth Express (stream/download here)

2009 - of concrete canyons and inner wastelands cd/12"LP (stream/download here)

2011 - if there is light it will find you cd/12"EP (stream/download here)

2014 - Old Departures, New Beginnings cd/12"LP (stream/donate/download here)

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(2006) TRAINWRECK - "Gravity Shifts" (from 'Trainwreck')

(2006) TRAINWRECK - "Dust From Our Fingertips" (from 'Trainwreck')

(2006) TRAINWRECK - "The Charme of Flickering Lights" (from 'Trainwreck')

(2007) TRAINWRECK - "Living Like the Living Dead" (from 'Comadre' split)

(2008) TRAINWRECK - "who will survive and what will be left of them" (from '4-way' split)

(2009) TRAINWRECK - "mistakes and misdirections" (from 'of concrete canyons and inner wastelands')

(2009) TRAINWRECK - "we must run, we must run, we must run" (from 'of concrete canyons and inner wastelands')

(2011) TRAINWRECK - "smaller and smaller" (from 'if there is light it will find you')

(2014) TRAINWRECK - "Apnea" (from 'Old Departures, New Beginnings')

(2014) TRAINWRECK - "Splitting the seams" (from 'Old Departures, New Beginnings')

(2014) TRAINWRECK - "Regardless" (from 'Old Departures, New Beginnings')

(2015) TRAINWRECK - final show live video

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TRAINWRECK out of print mp3 discography download / additional links

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