Band: TRUMAN
Genres: Punk / Screamo / Hardcore / Skramz / Emo-violence / Noise / EmoRelated artists: Page Of Concrete.
Country: Richmond, Virginia USA
Years Active: 2012-present
Song: "A Dim Light Amidst the Darkness of Despair"
Album: "Ikebana"
Year: 2015
Label(s): Self Released
This post's artist is from the July 2015 Mix. This is track #5.
You can download: the June Mix#7 right here or get the new July 2015 Mix#8 here.
For fans of: Ostraca, Caust, Swan Of Tuonela, OsoLuna, Welcome The Plague Year, Under A Sky So Blue, Circle Takes The Square, Storm The Bastille, The Assistant, To Dream Of Autumn, Seventeen Again, Sen Deni, Dolcim, Rats Into Robots, People's Temple Project, Foxmoulder, Gospel, Loma Prieta, Carrion Spring, Kodan Armada, Blue Friend and Joshua Fit For Battle, Love Lost But Not Forgotten aka PROPER SCREAMO.
TRUMAN play dark, caustic screamo with dreamy instrumentals that go from eerie to batshit crazy in a heartbeat. They hail from Richmond, Virginia and definitely slip into the kind of sound that the area is getting known for. They may only be a 4-piece with 1 guitar, but the dual vocals and impending, claustrophobic veil of noise would lead one to believe otherwise.
TRUMAN didn't hit their stride until the 'Tape' release, but I must say the 'Ikebana' takes that momentum and straps a goddamn rocket to it. I personally find the 'Truman' release aka the early stuff to be much too loose and tends to be more bass driven, which is cool and all but the swirling guitars are much more engaging on the second and third releases. I will admit that "Lamplighter" is pretty darn good, but a large reason may be due to the fact that it has a Punishment Park audio clip on repeat at the end, Mad props for that. If I had to liken the release to another band I'd mention Foxmoulder's early material, but that's probably a stretch with the exception of "Euler's Circuit".
Here's what I wrote after hearing their 2-song 'Tape', which isn't as accurate after reading it now - but whatever.
"I love when bands I've never heard of send me stuff and it just kills me. TRUMAN is one of those bands. I sat on the email because I was busy, and now I'm kicking myself for doing so. These Richmond, Virginia boys have created 2 more than decent screamy hardcore tracks that were right up my alley. The screaming is hoarse, thick and very engaging, along with the jazzy stops and starts as well as the wailing spacey guitars that bands such as Swan Of Tuonela, Dolcim and Rats Into Robots use(d). Some parts are very bass heavy such as 4-minute mark or so of "And Between The Wasteland And The Sky". In addition, both tracks also delve into an what I like to call Intronaut-sounding porno bass, at times. There are vocals that turn almost black-metal but generally its throaty yet screamy and the instrumental backing also incorporates clean screamo parts that all really fucking work. Highly recommended!!!"
On 'Ikebana' the band gets stupid. Like, stupid good. "Chrysanthemum" gets pretty gosh darn Swan Of Tuonela if you ask me, which is why it's one of my personal favourites. It's really heavy but has some ridiculously amazing slow parts such as the Storm The Bastille and Kodan Armada sounding clean/distorted back-and-forth that begins at 35 seconds and continues until about 1:20 when Welcome The Plague Year and Swan Of Tuonela dense atmospherics kick in. "A Dim Light Amidst the Darkness of Despair" begins with an ominous guitar riff that cycles a few times until 32 seconds in when the instruments crash together. At 1:10 it slows down again and sounds like it could have come from an old Loma Prieta record, or perhaps even Kodan Armada, and the end culminates in some of the band's best and most driving work. "Dark Moon" is also worth mentioning as the entire intro screams Joshua Fit For Battle and Storm The Bastille with those goddamn beautiful instrumentals. Ahhhhh the screamo sound with no screaming.
Get on this, seriously. Amazing stuff.
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DISCOGRAPHY
2014 - Truman digitalEP (stream/donate/download here)
2014 - Tape cassetteEP (stream/donate/download here)
2015 - Ikebana digitalEP (stream/donate/download here)
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(2015) TRUMAN - "Chrysanthemum" (from 'Ikebana')
(2015) TRUMAN - "A Dim Light Amidst the Darkness of Despair" (from 'Ikebana')
(2014) TRUMAN - "Hearth and Home" (from 'Tape')
(2014) TRUMAN - "Euler's Circuit" (from 'Truman')
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TRUMAN additional links
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