ffo: Heavy Heavy Low Low, Fear Before The March Of Flames, The Blood Brothers, Me And Him Call It Us, Hayworth, Letters To Catalonia, Black Nail and .gif from god
Amazing screamo influenced metalcore (or maybe it's the other way around?) is definitely on the rise with bands such as .gif from god, Letters To Catalonia and Black Nail. The new amalgamation of recently defunct René Descartes along with members of Letters To Catalonia, has led to a very confident and particularly sassy offspring from San Diego, California. Imagine the metalcore elements of Heavy Heavy Low Low, the multifaceted screaming of Fear Before The March Of Flames, the sinister sass of The Blood Brothers, and it's all blanketed by a profound love for the violence of Me And Him Call It Us and the quirkiness of Daughters. Well, that's SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY.
In 2016 the band released a four-song EP appropriately titled 'Demo' on cassette via Connie's label Structures//Agony and cd on the always reliable React With Protest Records. It was fantastic for a demo, opting for spazzy and sassy grind/metalcore complete with breakdowns, yelping and multiple, venomous screamers. This formula was revised and perfected, because the six songs on the upcoming 2017 7"EP 'Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware' are fucking ridiculous. RE - DICK - YOU - LUSS. Take a listen to the third song below. "Pep Talk from a Nihilist" begins with 20 seconds of those sassy/yelped vocals I keep mentioning along with awkward and jarring instrumentals that sink like a stone afterwards. The vocals switch to gutteral growls and then scathing screeching. By 42 seconds we are graced with a prodigious breakdown and screams that are so thick and piercing that they could penetrate a bullet proof vest. From around the one-minute mark to the end of the song, SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY switches to spoken word and what I can only describe as music that sounds like The Dillinger Escape Plan. A million thanks to the band for allowing OMSB to do this exclusive stream. Prepare yourself...
Band: SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY
Album: 'Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware' 7"EP
Connie was kind enough to send me the lyrics to "Pep Talk from a Nihilist" and they are as follows:
Slight Brand, high class subterfuge
Raw, Thought, Rethink, Pretend
Idle Stance, Coat Your Mouth and Send Again
Raw Through, Rethink, Just Pretend
Contort
Reshape
Matchstick Mind At Ease
Charcoal Hands Erode
Slight Spine
Brazen Picture Rooted
Contort
Reshape
Matchstick Mind At Ease
Prideful Preaching Crosses Solace's Disdain
still circle "stray" and know that we are relics
of strain
and you spit blood from across the room
just brace yourself and spit in tune
high stakes silence while their tounges loom
the wolf inside resumes,
wont see you soon
SEEYOUSPACECOWBOY will be releasing 'Fashion Statements of the Socially Aware' before the summer starts on 7" and will support its release on a mid-west/west summer tour.
Label(s): Ruined Smile Records / i.corrupt Records / Rubaiyat Records / Dingleberry Records / Upwind Productions / Don't Care Records This post's artist is from the March 2017 Mix. This is track #7.
You can download: the March 2017 Mix#3 right hereor get the new April 2017 Mix#4 here.
After hearing my friend Guitalex from Nous Étions rave about MASADA I finally checked them out in late 2016 only to find out that, low and behold, he was right. The self titled 12" skyrocketed onto my top 20 of 2016 list (linked here) with a precarious and jaw-dropping balancing act of the abrasive and melodic, depending on the section of the song you are listening to. I personally find the all-out screaming to be utterly fantastic. The thickness created with their shredding of vocal chords is in the Thomas Schlatter (In First Person, What Of Us, etc.) realm so you know it's gonna be soul-penetrating. The bass is mixed nice and high so their is a booming yet gritty feel to the entire LP which balances out the occasional brakes put on during slower, ambient, melodic and dare I say poppier moments of MASADA.
The 'Demo' cassette EP is an excellent start and isn't really all that different from the record released two years afterwards, which meant MASADA started strong and therefore would likely improve on an already successful formula nearly instantaneously...which they did. The aforementioned 'Masada' full length came out in 2016 and is fantastic. "Untitled 1", "Defeat" and "Schwärzester Punkt" have been rerecorded from the 'Demo' and appear hear, with subtle and favourable tweaks. "Vier" is an awesome song with a trippy/spacey guitar midsection and an end that is heavy as shit and can easily be likened to Virginia On Duty and might be my highlight of the record. Songs such as the killer opener "Uneindeutigkeiten", "Defeat" and "Fragments" lay heavy on the sweet, sugary, clean vocals and somehow come off sounding like Причал if they bred with the Scots Kaddish. There are also extremely short blasts of hardcore that rarely make it past a minute and a half, not to mention the one-minute mark, such as 40-second "Schwärzester Punkt" and the Dolcim-esque "Sandkasten" at 37 seconds.
I've heard this band kills it live so I'm excited to see continued output from them. MAAAAAASAAAAAAAADAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! I feel like this is the correct pronunciation.
Label(s): Self Released / Back To Reality Records / Des Bombes Des Fleurs / Desertion Records / Anarchino Records / Plastic Phant Records / Not A Pub / Dingleberry Records / Emergence / A L'ombre De Cette Vie Records / Orchidscent Records / Emotionally Unstable Records / No Way Asso / Impure Muzik / Suck & Cut / Ours / L'Artiisant Production / Saddest Song Records This post's artist is from the March 2017 Mix. This is track #6.
You can download: the March 2017 Mix#3 right hereor get the new April 2017 Mix#4 here.
Review by JESSE MOWERY:
I Was A Cosmonaut Hero was a band from France that were
beautiful and crushing without having to rely on chunky riffs or breakneck
speeds. I first discovered them when I was following a blog on obscure French hardcore
and screamo bands called Psychoviolence (it’s still up and I highly suggest
checking it out) and they posted ‘MMXIII’. After reading that members of Daïtro
and Gantz had contributed to it, I had to listen to it immediately, and I was
not disappointed in the least. Featuring beautiful guitars that create swirling
melodies, rhythms that are never complex, but are a perfect backdrop for the
guitars, and vocals that, while gruff, are still intelligible(although I don’t
know French unfortunately). I had only listened to their earlier stuff a little
bit before deciding to do this review, and each release offers something a bit
different, although it’s still congruent with their overall sound.
Their first release was a 'self-titled' 4-song EP in 2012 that
sounds similar to a lot of the early 2000’s French screamo bands like Gantz and
Amanda Woodward. My favorite track from it is “Echéance”, as it reminds me of
Sed Non Satiata, starting with a driving beautifully dissonant guitar part into
some delayed out melodies that build into and epic ending.
In 2013 they released 2 songs on a 'split with Cheval and The Solexine Chapter', titled “Insomnie des lendemains (Part I)” and “Insomnie des
lendemains (Part II). Part II seems more in line with their first release, while
Part I is closer to where they would end up, although it’s still darker than
what they would do next.
“MMXIII” is one of the most beautiful albums with screamy
vocals I’ve heard this decade. While there is still some delay on the guitars
at times, they mostly rely on weaving melodies in and out of each other rather
than effects to create an ever moving wall of beauty. It’s hard to single any
out because they all are wonderful, but "Mes faiblesses" and "Nous sommesseuls" both use violin to add to the tension. "Nous sommes seuls" also enlists
the help of Aurélien from Daïtro to lay down some of their amazing vocals, and
"L'envers du décor" had Max from Gantz doing some crazy shrieks as well.
Unfortunately around the time this album was finished one of the guitarists
left, and they talked about continuing with one guitar but broke up instead. 3
of the members now play in Laïka, who have only released a demo so far but seem
promising.
If you like beautiful guitars with screaming vocal, then go
listen to ‘MMXIII’ right now!
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DISCOGRAPHY Click )==>here<==( to download the band's complete discography in mp3 form.
2012 - I Was a Cosmonaut Hero cdrEP (stream/donate/download here)
Genres: Punk / Rock / Post-Rock / Hardcore / Post-Hardcore / Emo / Screamo / Skramz / Metal / Metalcore / Post-Metal / Alternative / Doom / Ambient / Crust / Sludge / Shoegaze / Pop-Punk / Experimental / Prog Related artists: Caitlyn Bailey, Game Theory, Of Wolves And Swine, Disquiet Apartment, Joop, Ang Bandang Shirley and Love In Athens. Country: Manila PHILIPPINES Years Active: 2015-present Song: "Eros Obfuscate" Album: "Eros Obfuscate" Year: 2016 For fans of: Fear Before The March Of Flames, Hum, Converge, Dead Poetic, Caitlyn Bailey, Pluum and I give up this is too fucking hard.
Label(s): Self Released This post's artist is from the March 2017 Mix. This is track #1.
You can download: the March 2017 Mix#3 right hereor get the new April 2017 Mix#4 here.
For all posts I have a template. At the top of the template is the band section for "genres" and there are probably 20 or so genres in there that I erase as I do the post, generally whittling that shit down to 3-8. For this post, however, I pretty much left them all in. In case you didn't know, BEAST JESUS play what I would probably label as clusterfuck-core. Each song recorded by the band hits at least 5 different genres and doesn't mix them, but instead hop from one to the next at dizzying speeds. The members come from a myriad of backgrounds including screamo (Caitlyn Bailey), metalcore (Of Wolves And Swine), synth-pop (Love in Athens), shoegaze (Disquiet Apartment) and an alt/prog band (Game Theory). To try and make band comparisons for BEAST JESUS is fucking useless, as any comparison is automatically null and void a few minutes later (at most) after making the statement. The shifts are sometimes seamless and other times jarring. Maybe this is a good stepping stone to explain the remainder of this post, as it flows thusly:
1 - Blender Analogy (no, I'm not joking)
2 - 'Eros Obfuscate' Review
So here goes the Blender Analogy aka BEAST JESUS' metamorphosis from the beginning to end of 2016. In early 2016 BEAST JESUS released their four-song EP 'In Various States of Disassembly' which is okay. I mean, I like parts of it but each song doesn't flow all that well for me. It's like trying to drink a fruit smoothie that hasn't been blended. On their own, each little genre section is decent to very good, although trying to swallow it whole just didn't work for me. But then...BUT THEEEEEEENNNN they released 'Eros Obfuscate' in very late 2016 and those fine people from the Philippines found their blade and mashed the shit outta those fruit chunks. Now it's like drinking a fine fruit blend that'll have you smacking your lips after downing it in three seconds flat.
'Eros Obfuscate' is amazing. Truly, the growth from the four-song EP to the one-song EP is astounding. Wait, did I just say one-track EP? Yep. One song...but it's 16 minutes long! The styles flow in and out, weaving more of a story and journey than a mishmash of parts. I first heard this in the first week of 2017 and immediately slapped myself in the face thrice for not listening earlier and therefore including this EP in my top 10 of 2016, which in hindsight it totally is. Are you the kind of person who fucks off after not liking a track for a few minutes? Well stick your impatient ass out cuz although this thing begins like the soundtrack to Titanic, it hits everything in the middle from space-rock to choirs and screamo to pop-punk and then over to metal and back to screamo. It's a unique beast that must have taken forever to hash out and write, because the flow of it all is so smooth you'll be amazed when you look at the timer and see you're 13 minutes into the song and haven't been bored once.
So let's run through this song that still has me salivating after more than 20 listens (that's about 330 minutes of listening to one song in only two and a half months!) later. "Eros Obfuscate" is 16:25 in length. The opening begins with somber piano and slightly lifting orchestral music that builds and hits its climax at 49 seconds, sounding much like the opening to a movie. At 1:22 the song takes quite a natural step into Disney/Titanic-esque closing of the first movement, which is kinda cheesy but it fits really well and I love it. At 1:52 BEAST JESUS pick up their instruments and create a sonic web of spacey and ethereal post-hardcore/shoegaze intro. By 2:36 the vocals sneak in with some subdued, mildly buried and whispered singing that end up being an earworm and a half. This calming and lifting section begins to resemble the last Fear Before foray into post-hardcore and is something I hum to myself on a daily basis. At 4:20 we are met with a pop-punk/emo verse that melts into crushing drums and the first of many breakdowns and just when you expect shit to get really crazy - a jazz/prog interlude. This thing explodes by 5:40 with venomous screaming and bursts of metalcore which include some sick little tap riffs from 6:00 to 6:17. At this point we are met with blatant noise atop what may or may not resemble The Dillinger Escape Plan. Just after the seven-minute mark the songs dips into what could almost be labeled death metal territory, only to have a choir lift the song out and into pop-punk territory again. Jeeeesus...errrrr, JESUS BEAST! At 8:18 the riffs start coming in hordes and bust into sick screamo breakdowns following 8:30 that remind me of their previous outfit Caitlyn Bailey. At 10:24 the song begins to break down into slower sections as it prepares for the epic conclusion, and in doing so takes on the form of now defunct-Youth Novel for 30 seconds or so. From 11-12 minutes we are graced with a beautifully passionate and earnest spoken word passage that has the vocalist sounding like they are on the verge of tears due to utter frustration. This fades into silence for at 12:18 the end begins, and it is glorious, my friends. At the 12:40 mark "Eros Obfuscate" goes for the jugular and succeeds with scary precision, as the mathy/melodic guitars crash together with driving drums, yelled vocals and eventually piercing screams. This whirlwind of amazingness hits a second wind at 13:40 but collapses by 14 minutes. The final two and half minutes consist of the transition into complete noise, a quick little breakdown, and then the death drones of each instrument. Whether or not this final part is a nod to Old Man Gloom is probably answered in an exclusive little ditty below:
Francis from the band gave me this explanation earlier today when I asked them about BEAST JESUS' influences: "I think we've got a lot of things revolving around a post-hardcore foundation. We have a lot of indie and math rock in our DNA, but that all comes second to the screamo, post-metal, and noise rock influences we have. Collectively, we grew up on stuff from Level-Plane, Robotic Empire, Creation, Earache, Relapse, Hydra Head, Mostly late 90s/early 00s hardcore. Oh, but also Creation, 4AD, Sarah Records, Shelflife, etc. All amazing labels. Ebullition and 31G/Gravity too. And cheesy virtuoso guitar music like Steve Vai. We do like a lot of jazz and classical stuff too. Our bass player comes from more of a college rock background, and got into extreme music later on. The rest of us all grew up in the hardcore scene as teenagers."
So there we are. BEAST JESUS and 'Eros Obfuscate' are fucking unreal. There has to be at least something in there for you, and likely, the entire thing will blow you away. I am stoked like crazy for whatever they end up dropping next, regardless of genre or length. Oh, and I've changed my mind. This is blender-core.
P.S. The band recently did a set where they covered old Caitlyn Bailey songs and it was all recorded and posted here!
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DISCOGRAPHY
2016 - Eros Obfuscate digitalEP (stream/donate/download here)
2016 - Shadowplay digital single
2016 - In Various States of Disassembly digitalEP (stream/donate/download here)
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(2016) BEAST JESUS - "Eros Obfuscate" (from 'Eros Obfuscate')
(2016) BEAST JESUS - "Shadowplay" (from 'Shadowplay')
(2016) BEAST JESUS - "Velvet Thunder" (from 'In Various States of Disassembly')
(2016) BEAST JESUS - "Scoliosis Backbrace" (from 'In Various States of Disassembly')
Label(s): Feeling Faint Productions / Corrosive Recordings / Lifeforce Records / Soyuz Music This post's artist is from the March 2017 Mix. This is track #4.
You can download: the March 2017 Mix#3 right hereor get the new April 2017 Mix#4 here.
In 2004 HARLOTS released the overly titled 'The Woman You Saw Is The Great City That Rules Over The Kings Of The Earth'. At 10 songs, it opens with a dreamy post-rock track before delving into pretty lengthy grindy metalcore with a bit of black and tech metal thrown in for good measure. The first banger is track two, titled "Babylon the Great" which is 6:26 of mind fuckery that isn't too far from early The Dillinger Escape Plan and the first From A Second Story Window EP. That last minute or so is insanely heavy and I fucking love it. This is followed by a post-everything instrumental track and then another that leans heavier towards the noise/experimental side of things. "Balancing the Limbs of Question" is the next killer tune and clocks in at 7:21. This behemoth begins much more like a metal/death metal track but the screaming and vocal variance keeps me around (instead of constant growling which drives me away). By four minutes the song has been to end of the universe and back but continues forward for three more propelled by menacing screams, incredibly powerful breakdowns and ballistic double bass...and some growls. Some. Oh, and a final demon death shriek. "In One Day Her Plagues Will Overtake Her" is devastating and reminds me at times of Owen Hart. "Famine" is a 23-second splash of acid-noise in the face. "She Will Be Consume By Fire" is another excellent example of HARLOTS just laying waste to the listener and for lengthy period of time, yet again.
Two years later, in 2006, HARLOTS put out another LP, this time titled 'This is the Second Death', which most definitely sounds like the subsequent step forward from their 2004 debut. The songs have better production, are tighter and more concise, as they generally shed the 6-7+ minute length. Right off the bat we have the band's traditional metalcore/math/grind along with new layers, including the occasional clean singing. By the end of "These are the Paths That We Choose (part 1)" the breakdowns and screaming bring about utter destruction in the last minute, is fucking awesome and will tickle the fancy of Norma Jean and Black Nail fans, as will the 1:20 mark in "These are the Paths That We Choose (part 2)". The noise tracks are present again and include the short "Moment of Desperation" and insanely long "Moment of Sickness". "Those Days Seem Several Hundred Years Ago" is a beautiful post-rock/post-hardcore song complete with violin and piano that would have Mogwai and Godspeed, You! Black Emperor fans nodding in approval until the Supermachiner-esque unraveling of the song by its conclusion. "Remote Coagulation" is a pummeling assault on the ears, "Asceticism" is 2:43 of instrumental math-metal, "War of the Great City" is my favourite from this album and takes all of the aspects that HARLOTS excelled in and somehow stuffs it into 3:04. Closer "Fall of the Matriarch" was so close to being the blog mix track, as the instrumental post-everything is breathtaking and gorgeous, and therefore not exactly the typical HARLOTS sound.
Somehow, just a year later, the band churned out their final LP titled 'Betrayal'. The opening track hits like a ton of bricks and lets you know from the get-go that they've changed up their vocal delivery, as the higher screams and general variety is cut back and generally replaced with lower, gutteral growls that sound a lot like the deeper side of Between The Buried And Me, From A Second Story Window and later Into The Moat. Speaking of Between The Buried And Me, the second song "Avada Kedavra" is almost identical to that very influential band in many respects, including the instrumentals. "Full Body Contortion" follows and combines multiple vocalists with both pulverizing drums and bass as well as some mathy as fuck guitars and even a foray back in to singing. "Dried Up Goliathan" is a massive venture into Neurosis, Rosetta, Tephra and perhaps even Isis territory and it fucking rocks throughout its 8:27 ascent to a very worthwhile climax. "Building an Empire Towards Destruction" is the exact opposite and obliterates everything in its path in less than two minutes. "Consensus for the Locus of Thought" is pretty screamy and fast as all hell and is without a doubt one of my favourite HARLOTS jams. "This is a Test...No Flesh Shall Be Spared" is meant for headbanging and parts definitely remind me of Johnny Truant although they throw in some melodic bits around 3:30 before descending rather hastily into the depths of hell. "The Concept of Existence" increases the amount of melody in the chaos (although not by much) and leads into the prodigious closer "Suicide Melody" that reproduces nearly every sound the band has been crafting over the years over 12 minutes.
In 2007 they also released what looks to be a nod to the dissolution of the band, as they released 'The Human War Machine' which is a demo/live album and very well recorded, but doesn't really include any unreleased material so I was a tad disappointed. In early 2008 they released 'Corellia', a single that showed the band had moved down to a two-piece thanks to the credits, so my guess is this was the beginning of the end and HARLOTS simply disbanded after this recording. The song itself is pretty damn awesome and could be likened to Into The Moat and early Warsaw Was Raw with raging...well, raging everything. It's 6:32 of absolutely blistering metal, whether you want to call it math, death or core, it's perhaps the best song ever released by HARLOTS, as well as the last.
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DISCOGRAPHY
2004 - The Woman You Saw Is The Great City That Rules Over The Kings Of The Earth cdLP (stream/donate/download here)
2006 - This is the Second Death cdLP (stream/donate/download here)
2007 - Betrayer cdLP (stream/donate/download here)
2007 - The Human War Machine demo/live LP (stream/donate/download here)
2008 - Corellia single (stream/donate/download here)
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(2008) HARLOTS - "Corellia" (from 'Corellia')
(2007) HARLOTS - "Consensus for the Locus of Thought" (from 'Betrayer')
(2007) HARLOTS - "Dried Up Goliathan" (from 'Betrayer')
Label(s): Self Released / Time As A Color / Dunk!Records / Revolvermann Records / Emotionally Unstable Records / Wolves And Vibrancy Records / Hackebeil Records / Puzzle Records / icorrupt Records / Salsifis Conspiracy This post's artist is from the March 2017 Mix. This is track #10.
You can download: the March 2017 Mix#3 right hereor get the new April 2017 Mix#4 here.
I'm reviewing this 3-piece instru-metal monster that is TERRAFORMER because my friend Daniel of Time As A Color sent it to me to review. He actually sent me 'Mineral' which more than surpassed my requirements for getting posted on this blog, but then I nabbed the rest of the discography and I have certainly found my new post-metal instrumental love for the next few months, having recently dabbled quite heavily into Grand Détour, Tomydeepestego, Town Portal and Ornaments. I find instru-metal bands to have lulls and relatively boring parts due to their length, but TERRAFORMER sidesteps this common pitfall and brings it on every track at every moment. Let's go through their discography, which begins a year after their 2009 inception.
Assuming my math holds up, the 'Terraformer' EP came out in 2010 and houses six songs are fantastic, especially for a debut release. The latter half of "Zephyr" is unreal, spouting riffs galore, while "Crusade" and "Leave the Ship" are very mathy and bring This City Called Earth to mind, save that dank-ass explosion that rocks the final 30 seconds of the former track. Most of these songs don't even end up hitting the four-minute mark and were likely influenced heavily by the first Russian Circles full length 'Enter', as the chug vs. math-taps sound nearly identical, especially in "Leave the Ship", the last bit of "Bot" and most of "Highway Rabbit Versus Darwin". I'll say it again, great fucking record!
In 2012 'The Sea Shaper' was released and, for the most part, it moves away from the math-taps and heads toward heavier, brooding instru-metal along the lines of Pelican and Omega Massif. The most obvious bangers are track 4 "Whale" (imagine the audio equivalent of a Moby Dick death match), track 9 "R'lyeh" (a very groovy time) and track 11 "Anacharsis" (the hardest and most demonic song they have written to date, and quite possibly the best). There are also some short one-minute tracks that aren't just straight up noise, which is nice. Those shorts songs are opener "Ahab", "Trail of Lena" and "Dragon Poulpe". Although not as gripping as their debut, this is still an excellent release that shows much growth.
In 2013 the band released a single song on the 'dunk!sampler #1' compilation called "Lupa". It's a very good track and worth checking out, as it permeates from the speakers with massive riffs and the sinking feeling that you are floating in space, not unlike Rosetta. TERRAFORMER was busy in 2014, releasing another LP titled 'Creatures' which takes later Russian Circles and mashes it together with Tomydeepestego, creating a very mature yet volatile beast, best exemplified on the aptly titled opener "Beast", the soaring and majestic "Kelpie" as well as the epic "Géants". "Alecta" concludes the album and even includes some well placed vocals just before the three-minute mark, which give the entire thing a very Fall Of Efrafa feel. Also in 2014, they released a collaboration project titled 'Euryale' with members of the band Kokomo with varying degrees of success, as the sound takes on a deeper, Mono-esque feel which both helps and hurts the general TERRAFORMER sound. Regardless, this is a good listen and one for when you are in need of more relaxation than TERRAFORMER normally gives you.
I initially set out to write only a review for 2017's 'Mineral', but the entirety of TERRAFORMER's catalogue was sick that this became a much more involved review than I had set out to do, but hey, now I know about a really awesome band because of it. So, the new LP opens with "Aegan", a pummeling onslaught of palm-muted guitars from the self titled EP era of Pelican and gets pretty head-bobby at 1:40 or so but doesn't let up its gravitational grip until the 8:26 conclusion. "Adamantine" follows with beautiful, sweeping movements that share many qualities with early Russian Circles, hidden gem Finger Of God as well as Gifts From Enola with astronaut-ready sounding swirls captured from six minutes onwards. Third is "Amethyst", a relatively quick look into the TERRAFORMER sound at a mere 4:55, and is likely heavily inspired by Pelican's 'City of Echoes' material. There are playful guitars on "Penelope" after the first minute, followed by a splattering of both chugs and eternal reverb riffs. The song weaves in and out of different branches of post-rock, post-hardcore and post-metal which settles itself over the final four minutes with cool palm muting, and expansive/spacey guitars that again bring to mend 'City of Echoes'. "Epoch" has the allure of Red Sparowes as the song traverses the audio equivalent of massive and stunning canyons, capturing both the dark and violent shifts of time as well as the smooth, polished elegance of weathered stone. Closer "The Ether Shell" brings wave after wave of dreamy, instrumental, sonic europhia in instru-metal form. Truly an excellent LP.
Also released in 2017 is the recently premiered 'Watered split' 12" (stream here) that has TERRAFORMER at their densest, manifesting some seriously subterranean sludge with occasional glimmers of hope. "The Sierpinski Triangle" is a perfect example of this while "Antennapedia" is a droning mirror of the German masters Omega Massif.
I noticed that the band is going on tour starting in April 2017 so be sure to check their Facebook page to get caught up on exactly where they are playing. Until it's finalized, I last saw this:
Label(s): Structures // Agony This post's artist is from the March 2017 Mix. This is track #2.
You can download: the March 2017 Mix#3 right hereor get the new April 2017 Mix#4 here.
BLACK NAIL is fucking awesome. Releasing but six songs over two EPs, every song is a direct punch in the gut. I recently premiered their new EP 'A Meeting of Bliss and Trauma' in late February 2017, only to have this review already line up for March of 2017. Therefore I'm going to review the older 2016 'Black Nail' EP and then do some shameful copy/pasting. Observe.
The debut 'Black Nail' four-song cassette EP begins with "black as midnight on a moonless night...pretty black" which is almost relaxed sounding for BLACK NAIL, but by 40 seconds the murder riffs come out full force and lay waste to the remainder of this slasher track. "here's a list of my demands and every regret i've ever had" keeps a steady and intimidating pace for as long as they can...which explodes into chaos by the one-minute mark. "the vultures are waiting to pick yr bones" is another one of my favourites, as it creates madness early but keeps it all in check with some really tight stops and starts. By 40 seconds the songs shifts into demonic mode and at 56 seconds the band rains down death upon the listener. Closer "i wanna die like god" is the band's lone foray into 3+ minute material, clocking in at 4:41. It broods and festers for the first minute with plodding bass and yelling before picking up the pace with some crazy-ass drumming and general sound not unlike my beloved Crowning. The song slows down again soon after and layers increasingly emotional spoken words over building instrumentals that eventually collapse under their own weight at 2:45 and the track disintegrates into a pool of thick, black and poisonous sludge.
The original premiere of 'A Meeting of Bliss and Trauma' was posted on February 24th, 2017 and here is the relevant synopsis:
"The explosiveness and sheer intensity is overwhelming and will leave fans of Me And Him Call It Us, Letters To Catalonia and .gif from god in a euphoric state. Opening track "Holding a Moth by the Wings (Hands for Scissors)" is an eerie and feedback saturated homage to Me And Him Call It Us, combining poisonous vocals with crushing instrumentals. The songs speeds up substantially at 1:18 and disintegrates into black hole breakdowns by 1:30. The final track on the EP is "It's Not Just a Feeling, You are Being Watched", which is a mere 1:53 of forehead slapping awesomeness. Opting for a faster opening and scathing vocals amidst here and there mini-breakdowns, the song goes fucking ballistic at 1:38 and will have fans of .gif from god and Letters To Catalonia on their knees praying to the gods of spazzy, metallic screamo. Seriously this song is one of the best you'll hear in 2017."
So there you have it, the screamy and grindy metalcore is as unrelenting as it is pummeling, with the band opting for panicked chords, chaos and murderous breakdowns. The band will be touring in March to SXSW with the band Tweak. Insanely stoked to hear anything else the band touches and I hope ZBR will be involved in some way, cuz that'd be sick.
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DISCOGRAPHY
2016 - Black Nail cassetteEP (stream/donate/download here)
2017 - A Meeting of Bliss and TraumacassetteEP (stream/donate/download here)
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(2017) BLACK NAIL - full set
(2017) BLACK NAIL - "It's Not Just a Feeling, You are Being Watched" (from 'A Meeting of Bliss and Trauma')
(2017) BLACK NAIL - "Holding a Moth by the Wings (Hands for Scissors)" (from 'A Meeting of Bliss and Trauma')
(2016) BLACK NAIL - "black as midnight on a moonless night...pretty black" (from 'Black Nail')
(2016) BLACK NAIL - "the vultures are waiting to pick yr bones" (from 'Black Nail')
Label(s): Parking Lot Records This post's artist is from the March 2017 Mix. This is track #5.
You can download: the March 2017 Mix#3 right hereor get the new April 2017 Mix#4 here.
KING SLENDER was sent to me last year by Matt to review. It took me awhile to get around to posting it, but I expect they'll be coming out with something new soon so perhaps this'll work out well. The Philadelphia emo/screamo hardcore band have crafted an excellent debut 'Demo' EP that certainly turned a few heads, and with this review turns a few more. Drawing influences from Shotmaker, Julia, Four Hundred Years and Spirit Assembly, KING SLENDER also boast members of heavyweights like The Minor Times, Carved Up and The Sea, The Sea so I'm guessing that readers of this blog will eat this up.
"Twelve" opens with a very obvious and unique twist on emotional hardcore. There are sprinkles of Ten Grand, Lautrec and Twelve Hour Turn amidst the mixture of punk, hardcore, emo and screamo that creates a blend that blasts my taste buds in a myriad of ways, especially the final 30 seconds when things get insanely intense. "Snowball Wit" is my personal favourite. It begins with a quick quote before rocking some really sleek 90s emo with dark and menacing undertones, although the head-bobbing conclusion from 1:40 onward warrants Funeral Diner and Portraits Of Past comparisons. Woowee! Finale "Drunk at the Water Park" is not just a great title, but a bouncy and rhythmically pleasing adventure into bass-led, dancey and screamy hardcore punk rock.
The cassette EP was released by Parking Lot Records and limited to a mere 50 copies so if you dig this and haven't picked one up already get on that. Damn ass excited to hear more tunes from this new band.
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DISCOGRAPHY
2016 - King Slender cassetteEP (stream/donate/download here)
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(2016) KING SLENDER - "Snowball Wit" (from 'Demo')
(2016) KING SLENDER - "Twelve" (from 'Demo')
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KING SLENDER out of print mp3 discography download / additional links
