SEPTEMBER 22ND

Band: SEPTEMBER 22ND

Genres: Punk / Post-Rock / Hardcore / Post-Hardcore / Post-Metal / Metal / Screamo / Skramz / Black Metal / Doom
Related artists: Adaje, Vere, Blackset, Autolith, Water Liars, Avair, To Russia, Deep Love, A Ghostly Opera and Holy Gallows.
Country: Jackson, Tennessee U.S.A.
Years Active: 2005-2008
Song: "Solemn's Harrowing"
Album: "Hello, Throne"
Year: 2007
For fans of: Blue Noise, An Autumn Of Crippled Children, Fall Of Efrafa, Light Bearer, Avvika, Archivist, Cult Of Luna, Monuments Collapse, Rosetta, Deafheaven, Nionde Plågan, Tephra, Amber and Trachimbrod.

Label(s): Self Released

This post's artist is from the December 2019 Mix. This is track #6.

You can download: the December 2019 Mix#12 right here or get the new January 2020 Mix#1 here

I was turned onto SEPTEMBER 22ND earlier this year by a friend's post. While I dip tapes I like listening to longer songs, so after downing 'Hello, Throne' and becoming deeply intoxicated on the band I went back and got the first two EPs. Now I'm here...and I can't find a goddamn thing about them besides their bandcamp. No discogs. No reviews. No physicals? Good story? Meh.

SEPTEMBER 22ND's first release is 2005's 'The Legend, The Ghost' EP. Containing five tracks over 23 minutes, it's an excellent look into the band's sound without it being too detached from future material. Following a haunting two-minute intro, "If the Devil were real, That sonofabitch would speak spanish." comes through in just 3:26 with behemoth instrumentals and excellent, anguished screams that border on the black-metal spectrum, with the transition at 2:30 being awesome thanks to excellent vocal placement and delivery. "The Deathrattle" is another well-rounded song, this one clocking in at 6:31 and being more of a hybrid between post-metal and screamo...landing somewhere between Fall Of Efrafa and City Of Capterpillar. Between the "The Deathrattle" and "rrRRrRrRRrrr" more than half of the EP track time is taken up, as the latter nearly reaches six minutes also, and has that brooding, slow, epic post-metal, black-metal, screamo thing going on, as well as a section just after the three-minute mark that reminds me of The Reptilian before swinging back into their danceable and screamy grooves.

2006 saw a two-song EP titled 'W.W.T.Z.D.' with a very cool skull-into-moon design that is also a drawing of a woman holding a candle in the mirror. Although containing only two songs, the 8-plus minutes of swirling, screaming, destruction is even better than its predecessor. Opener "El Diablo habla ingles" has got lots of tremolo before the post-rock outro lulls you into a false sense of security, because the second song "...that old Humboldt road." will lock you in and drown you in mesmerizing crescendos and more of those phenomenal vocals.

SEPTEMBER 22ND's final release was 2007's 'Hello, Throne', and truly intoxicating mishmash of post-rock, post-metal, hardcore, black-metal and screamo. Shit comes in fucking massive on this record, with opener "the Elizabethe" clocking in at 11:39 and it's not even the longest song here. Everything is layered beautifully, and everything heavy by the band sounds like it's been given a second coating, creating a lush, smooth but very thick layer. This track in particular has a sliding groove that hits a some spacey, riffy notes (duuuuun duuun dun DUH-DUN) before circling back and starting again. The vocals are outstanding as always, placed beautifully, screamed to the max and dispersed neither too little nor too much throughout the 70-plus minute run-time. "Solemn's Harrowing" is another breathtaking track, utilizing a slow, sludgy and dark opening that eventually opens up into a beautifully gargantuan post-metal beast just after the five-minute mark. This final movement is something else, as the vocalist produces seemingly perpetual gruff screams until 6:40 when the Trachimbrod-esque riff comes in we're all bouncing around to some kind of amazing pop-rock/screamo/black-metal monster and it's fucking unreal. Fuuuuuck that's some good stuff. "Oh, up North" and "We are our own Cutlass" are both shorter but bursting with power and subtle melodies, with the latter pushing the band's technical chops more than most of their catalogue, while the longest song the band ever produced was "As the Tapestry Allays" which would be an excellent, somber, driving-through-the-country-at-night kinda tune. "Hemlock Fields" is long, sad, moving and climactic. "Hello" is short, ambient and instrumental. "Throne" is the culmination of everything the band seemed to be leading toward. It's incredible. The opening tears and rips at the listener with guitars that swing like mammoth pendulums and throat-shredding screams, swaying back and forth until the darkness sees some light around 2:30, followed by a very chill section a minute thereafter. A brief, chuggy, driving and inspiring minute pops in from six to seven minutes and then the song takes a very jazzy interlude before reverting back to that chuggy/epic shit, which leads the song into its final, depressing death march with whispered and screamed haunting vocal lines, repeated and layered over one another until the song's 13:18 conclusion.

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DISCOGRAPHY

2005 - The Legend, The Ghost EP (stream/download here)

2006 - W.W.T.Z.D. EP (stream/download here)

2007 - Hello, Throne LP (stream/download here)

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(2007) SEPTEMBER 22ND - "Throne" (from 'Hello, Throne')

(2007) SEPTEMBER 22ND - "Solemn's Harrowing" (from 'Hello, Throne')

(2007) SEPTEMBER 22ND - "the Elizabethe" (from 'Hello, Throne')

(2006) SEPTEMBER 22ND - "...that old Humboldt road." (from 'W.W.T.Z.D.')

(2005) SEPTEMBER 22ND - "If the Devil were real, That sonofabitch would speak spanish." (from 'The Legend, The Ghost')

(2005) SEPTEMBER 22ND - "The Deathrattle" (from 'The Legend, The Ghost')

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SEPTEMBER 22ND additional links

Bandcamp

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BLUEFLOWERREDTHORNS

Band: BLUEFLOWERREDTHORNS

Genres: Punk / Hardcore / Screamo / Skramz / Grindcore / Sludge
Related artists: ?.
Country: Lima, Ohio U.S.A.
Years Active: 2002-2004
Song: "Gutcheck"
Album: "Roads Without Ends split"
Year: 2003
For fans of: Cassilis, Moxiebeat, Straight, No Chaser, Entzauberung, Apostles Of Eris, Sur L'eau, Synodus Horrenda and Furnace.

Label(s): Self Released

This post's artist is from the December 2019 Mix. This is track #3.

You can download: the December 2019 Mix#12 right here or get the new January 2020 Mix#1 here

I came across BLUEFLOWERREDTHORNS recently and thought I'd share a quick review of this obscure Ohio band active in the early 2000s. They self-released two EPs and one split with Roads Without Ends and played raw, dark, sludgy hardcore with elements of screamo.

Their 2002 debut 'Summer Demos '02' contains four short tracks ranging from 48 seconds to 1:38. Perhaps I'm remembering incorrectly, but this reminds me of very early Capsule material before they busted out the math textbooks and stopwatches. The switchover 45 seconds in to "Something You Wouldn't Recognize" as well as those chuggy bits are pretty sweet, and I love the anguished vocals in "Help Us, Save Us".

The following year came a cdrom EP titled 'Tour Demos '03', this time housing three tunes that hover around a minute in length. These songs are much more varied and incorporate more dynamic song structures than their first demo, which is blatantly obvious upon the opening of "From the Doorknobs Down". This track also ends on a high note, bringing a pretty sick breakdown to the table. The dual vocals in "Nice Boulder" have an excellent back-and-forth to them, with this track also having a ridiculous end to it. Closer "Minnesota Miracle Man" is much more in line with their first release so I find it a bit out of place.

BLUEFLOWERREDTHORNS' final release came by way of a split cdrom with Roads Without Ends. These two tracks tally a measly 1:38 when combined, but the first track "Gutcheck" goes pretty hard come 34 seconds and weaves in some cool guitar interplay to close it out. The latter track "Exactly The Way It Was" is a ripper and will blast your face off before closing with a funny little audio clip.

Nothing exceptional, but a cool band to check out if you like the for fans of list and want something more.

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

2002 - Summer Demos '02 cassetteEP

2003 - Tour Demos '03 cdromEP

2004 - Roads Without Ends split cdromEP

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(2004) BLUEFLOWERREDTHORNS - "Gutcheck" (from 'Roads Without Ends' split)

(2003) BLUEFLOWERREDTHORNS - "Nice Boulder" (from 'Tour Demos '03')

(2003) BLUEFLOWERREDTHORNS - "From the Doorknobs Down" (from 'Tour Demos '03')

(2002) BLUEFLOWERREDTHORNS - "Something You Wouldn't Recognize" (from 'Summer Demos '02')

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BLUEFLOWERREDTHORNS out of print mp3 discography download

(download here)

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***SNAG exclusive interview***

An interview with:

SNAG

Bandcamp

Facebook

order 12"LP
ZBR U.S.A. store
ZBR Canada/Interanational

Middle Man Records (USA)

Dasein Records (Europe)

I have been an avid fan of Milwaukee's SNAG since their first EP was released back in 2017 (reviewed here), both because of the awesomeness of the music as well as the subject matter and lyrics. So much so, in fact, that I asked the band to do a split with the band I am/was in called Swallows Nest. Did they deliver? Good god they did, with the best song of 2018 (linked here). In late 2019 SNAG sent me their masters for the 'snag' 12"LP and yet again I was floored. Zegema Beach Records helped the band release it alongside Middle Man Records and Dasein Records with gorgeous art from Sammy (who also did the Swallows Nest split art/poster) and heaps of bonus goodies. They even made a music video for a song from it, which you need to watch right now:

After a great podcast with Shawn of Middle Man/Coma Regalia (linked here), I wrangled Peter as well as Brian and Sammy together in a chat and blasted them with questions for about a week. Below is the result.

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What was the catalyst for the creation of Snag? Are you referring to the tree term?
PETER: I've known sam since we were in high school. in 2014 or 2015 we played a bunch of acoustic Brand New covers with a couple of other friends at a valentines day emo cover show. The other friends ended up moving to new york city but Sam and i decided we wanted to get together and play loudly at some point. he was friends with Bryan and so we got together in august of 2016 and it clicked right away. by February of 17 we played our first show, and it was around that time that we had a conversation about how depressed we each had privately been before starting the band. we all really needed it in our own way.

The name snag is something Sam came up with, and it has a lot of different applicable meanings, the tree term among them.


Was there discussion early about the band's sound? What were you collectively influenced by? Did you discuss about the band's identity and morals early on? Did that come later or has it kind of been unspoken?
PETER: if memory serves, we talked about mans, silver mt zion, majority rule, city of caterpillar.

i think we talked about having a climate change theme pretty much right away. since then, the term climate anxiety has seemed  fitting of the sound and vibes. the difference being that rather than talking about climate change as a topic in and of itself, this music is reflective of the anger, dread, despair, feelings of helplessness, and glimmers of hope attendant to the climate crisis.

BRYAN: For me, at around the time we started snag I was at a rough point in my life and needed to be in a band as a sort of catharsis. Being in several Skramz bands before had helped me creatively and emotionally, and after talking with Sam and meeting Peter, we all started jamming and hit it off right away.

When we had first started jamming, much of what we were playing had somewhat of a pop punk vibe to it, quickly becoming much more darker and more hardcore/skramz as we were defining our sound.  I think even listening to the songs from our first ep to our current full length you can definitely hear a large transition in our sound, whether it be darker and heavier, or more complex. Part of what makes us interesting is that we have no real boundaries as to what should define our sound, making it super versatile and appealing to many audiences.

Most of what Peter said summed a lot of it up well for me at least.

In addition, along with the climate change theme we touch on a variety of topics within our political realm as well as real happenings that have taken place. We touch on pesticides, homelessness, political and social violence, pollution, immigrant rights, etc. I think that an audience needs to be aware of some of the real ecological, economical and social crises that are happening in the world, hopefully sparking some kind of action.

SAMMY: like the other two said, snag formed during a time when we were all in a sort of personal dark period. It seemed that the three of us getting together was something to hold onto and look forward to.

snag as a threesome holds a lot of history...Peter and I have known each other for almost 15 years, sock and I have know each other for almost 9 years. Peter introduced me to a lot of things in my adolescence...music, troublemaking, vegetarianism, alcohol, humor. Socki's and mine relationship has always circled around the diy scene which also has to do with music, troublemaking and friendship. snag was a collision of music loving, troubled, desperate twentysomethings. snag as a band name means a lot of things. A snag in life, a set back, something holding you in place, as well as the tree terminology.

Early on we did speak of certain bands we were into and wanted snag to sound like. Common ground was Mans, Majority Rule, City of Caterpillar. But it also extended to Godspeed! You black emperor, kidcrash, desaparacidos, thou, etc.

In terms of the bands identity, that was something that Peter was pretty forward about right off the bat. Socki and I were completely on board. It was something that, yes had been an influence on bands and music in the past, but for us it seemed pretty important. Peter works for a solar company, sock is a certified arborist, I work for a certified Green brewery, we all spend a good amount of time outdoors. Climate change, the world, the environment, was all a prominent thing in our lives. But, overall, I think that Peter and Socki are a tad bit more intellectual than I am. It was hard for me to keep up with everything that is happening in the world. Famine, climate change, death, keeping the poor poor. so I started to think about all of this in a different way. I thought to myself how Skramz and Screamo is such a diverse genre of music that it would correlate with these subject matters perfectly. Skramz has really intense, heavy, dissonant sounds to it, that could represent the darkness and anxiety engulfing our world and society. At the same time, Screamo/skramz also has really beautiful parts to it, this could represent hope and solitude, and comfort, and that maybe if you put your trust in the people you care and surround yourself with that maybe the small changes can make a big difference. Maybe that silly though. Either way, with that, Peter is an idea man, I'm a visual/audio person, and Socks the perfect mix between the two.

I like to think that even if you don't know our lyrics, or can't decipher what we are saying...if you know the subject matter you can really feel what we are feeling. It's about passion, and friendship, and being together while this world is falling apart. Take care of each other, take care of animals, take care of the land your living on, protect those less fortunate and educate the youth, drink water, look up, and hold hands. ✌

PETER: Sam is making me cry.


Do you think your future material will continue to be darker? I still find your Swallows Nest split the darkest/angriest thing I've heard by y'all.
BRYAN: So far we have been working on two new songs that sound pretty dark so far. As far as content lyrically we are still working on that.


How did you go about figuring out the track order on the LP?
PETER: we were listening to iphone recordings of old practices trying to find this one riff the other day and we discovered that we began writing this full length in 2017. the album opens with these meditations on self immolation as climate protest, and suicide as something so so so many people grapple with and yet nobody likes to talk about. I think every song touches on the internal contradictions and tensions inherent to climate anxiety. i.e. i don't want to contribute to this terrible system/machine/economic order, but everything i do and love is somehow tied up within it. the song order basically has the album getting darker and angrier (with the exception of morning, which rounds out side a) until the end, where waiting injects the narrative with a glimmer of hope. "i can't wait for a new life" is something of a call to action. don't wait.

Can you tell us more about the art concept?
SAMMY: The record has a lot of treats to it. We really are into visual art as well and wanted the record to be a total package deal. The records include a “collage” booklet with the lyrics, a packet of wildflower seeds and a book of matches. Those that take the time to read the lyrics and think to themselves the correlation between the subject matters and the things included hopefully will find it as beautiful as we do.


You had some guests appear on the album, care to share who they are in relation to you in the real world?
BRYAN: K rad plays cello, she used to be in social caterpillar and was also in a band called winterbourne. Crucial homie. Eliah plays violin, super cool dude and has been really good friends with Sam for a long time. John Larkin plays trumpet and has been a staple in the Milwaukee music scene for awhile playing in many bands like cairns, gauss, ylla, and many more that I can't remember. All have become good friends and it's great that we have had the opportunity to have them on this record.

PETER: kaitlyn's other active band is called ardeidae, and John's other active band is called divine crush. John also played trumpet on our first EP and on Social Caterpillar's new album which is coming out soon. We did a split with Social Caterpillar back in 2017. Eliah and Sam and I all went to high school together, and Eliah and Sam were in a few bands together, Sam can list them if he wants 😉

SAMMY: We were in a band called Idiot:Asshole together.


What records do you own that have special visual treats?
PETER: F#a# by godspeed specifically and 13 blues for 13 moons by silver mt zion

SAMMY: I don't have too many records with visual treats. Idk Driving Spain up a wall had a poster with it, Absolutely's "Learns to love mistakes" had a nice booklet. Perfect Pussy had a tour photo booklet that was pretty nice as well.

When you play shows do you often talk between songs? If so, is the banter generally lyric related or something else?
PETER: we generally try to keep banter to a minimum. there's maybe a missed opportunity to tell people what we're about, but i think we do that in other ways.

SAMMY: our banter is pretty slim. unless we are at a homebase venue surrounded by our friends. If that's the case we might open up and talk. but for the most part we are pretty quiet on stage.


What are your favourite releases of 2019?
PETER: top releases of 2019 for me:
nuvolascura
frail body
shadowmarks by lord snow
hourglass by ghost spirit
jaime by brittany howard
serpent's root by knaaves
Overo
Love Riddled With Conditions by slow fire pistol
nothing great about britain by Slowthai
slowfirepistol

BRYAN: My top releases are "2020" by shin guard, "a brief memorium" by frail body, "a gaze among them" by big brave, and "you will know the fear you forced upon us" by body void.

SAMMY: My top releases so far are the couple songs that Exhalents put out off ".​.​.​and draws a crucifix down his arm​.​​​.​​.", the song Nerver put out on "Meditations of Affinity - Cultivation (4 way split)", Amygdala's "Our voices will soar forever" and Frail Body of course. Like damn. I also really enjoyed Carrion Springs self titled. Also like damn.


What are some of your most important life decisions? Have you any important decisions as a band?
PETER: most important life decisions is a very difficult question. i took some time off from music, not really deliberately but just got too busy doing community organizing stuff, and made a point to involve music in my life in a much more focused way with this band and it was kind of a revelation that i need to always do this in order not to get very very very sad. even if the work that might prevent me from playing music seems to be meaningful or like a higher calling type thing, i realized with snag that i can't let life get in the way of living, if that makes sense.

as a band, we recently moved all our gear out of my house and into a practice space so that we could practice more regularly and for longer periods of time. that was a good decision in my view. even though i miss having sam and sock over pretty frequently.

SAMMY: Important life decisions to me, are to surround yourself with people who care about you, have fun, learn, take care of the people you love, take care of animals, drink water, be creative, fight through the anxiety, feel the depression, be self aware, support those around you, hang out in nature, tell your friends you love them, die laughing. Those are the important life decisions I try to live out day to day.

Decisions as a band..we’d all like to tour, we’d like to keep creating, maybe start the snag family farm, start a hard core orchestra, be good, donate, get conversations started. That kind of stuff. I think I like to use this band as an escape from depression, an outlet for my own anxiety and creativity (musically and visually, both with the album art and the collage videos we project during our sets.) and also a way of awareness.


What're you excited for in 2020?
Sammy: 2020 is the year of the snag. Lol.


Is there anything else you wanna touch on?

Sammy: I think this is all great. We had our record release show last night and it was absolutely amazing. Everyone who played absolutely killed it, the crowd was very supportive and amazing and loving and wild. The crowd was moshing and partying and respectful and caring. It was a great great party. Peter said it perfectly this morning “the feeling of playing shows like that is kind of similar to the feeling of falling in love, but not quite as good but still really good.” And I feel if you are a performing musician, or a touring musician, you know that feelings like that, when it comes to playing shows, is very very rare. And we are very lucky to have a huge supportive group and following that you couldn’t ask for anything better. It was an amazing high, the show last night. Truly. It made me feel humbled to be a part of this band and this community.


Who played your release show? Was there a "most special" part of the night?
SAMMY: It was an mixed genre show, DaveKevinAdam is a hip hop artist who opened the night, our bffs of all times Social Caterpillar was second, they’re cosmic acoustic stoney beauty (we did a split with them), Knaaves was third, they’re metal core with OG members that go way back in the DIY scene and then us. In between each musician was spoken word poetry. It was eclectic and nice. The most special part of the night for me was during our last song “waiting” it’s what ends the record. We had our good friends John, Eliah, and Kaitlynn play the trumpet, violin and cello with us. We played on the floor, they played on the stage behind us and it was just a really nice wholesome experience. A really beautiful way to end the night. After we finished the whole crowd was hugging us and each other and it was kind, and sweet and wholesome.


Did anyone take any videos?!
PETER: Our friend Luke Mouradian took some photos. (below)