Genres: Punk / Hardcore / Emo / Screamo / Skramz
Related artists: Youth Novel, Serpent Column, Monster Bad and Cheeseburger Picnic.
Country: Ann Arbor, Michigan U.S.A.
Years Active: 2015-2017
Song: "haven't you said enough"
Album: "Vampires"
Year: 2017
For fans of: Youth Novel, Ampere, Montcalm, ...Who Calls So Loud, (Nineteen) Nineteen, City Of Caterpillar, Ostraca, Closure, Indian Summer, Bright Calm Blue, Beau Navire, Loma Prieta, Guidelines, (early) Ice Hockey, They Sleep We Live, Lion Of The North, Makara, Mothlight, Ten Thousand Leagues and Funeral Diner aka PROPER SCREAMO.
Related artists: Youth Novel, Serpent Column, Monster Bad and Cheeseburger Picnic.
Country: Ann Arbor, Michigan U.S.A.
Years Active: 2015-2017
Song: "haven't you said enough"
Album: "Vampires"
Year: 2017
For fans of: Youth Novel, Ampere, Montcalm, ...Who Calls So Loud, (Nineteen) Nineteen, City Of Caterpillar, Ostraca, Closure, Indian Summer, Bright Calm Blue, Beau Navire, Loma Prieta, Guidelines, (early) Ice Hockey, They Sleep We Live, Lion Of The North, Makara, Mothlight, Ten Thousand Leagues and Funeral Diner aka PROPER SCREAMO.
Label(s): Self Released
This post's artist is from the May 2017 Mix. This is track #8.
You can download: the July 2017 Mix#7 right here or get the new August 2017 Mix#8 here.
Jon Riley and Maya Chun of Youth Novel (aka one of my favourite bands that released on Zegema Beach Records) sent me two unmastered VAMPIRES tracks years back and I salivated with glee. There were talks of 7"s and three-way splits but for some reason nothing ever came from it. Fast forward to summer 2017 and out of the blue they dropped their digital four-song EP and announced the laying to rest of VAMPIRES. It's a shame because these four songs are fucking fantastic European-influenced U.S. screamo. Looky here...
"with stars in her eyes" is an epic screamo opener that helps fuel the EP and deviates the band from Youth Novel ties by injecting more Funeral Diner, Montcalm and Ampere. Maya's vocals really help carry every song on here and it's more than apparent from the get-go, although the extremely tight instrumentals aren't hurting anyone, either. After ripping through the first half, the band opts for a dreamier and slightly softer package that brings to mind ...Who Calls So Loud with the climax hitting home just before the three-minute mark. Next up is the fucking ballistic "it's been done", which is short and goes right for the jugular with sharp, pointed and angular screamo that brings to mind Makara with much shriekier vocals and a darker, less epic and very angry take when compared to the opener. It's also very short at 1:33. "haven't you said enough" is the longest song at 4:00 and comes off somewhere in between the grandness of track one and the violence of track two. The hazy section from 1:22 to 1:55 brings the atmosphere and structure of City Of Caterpillar to mind before the song bounces around the chunky, disjointed midsection. By 2:43 the song comes apart at the seams and we hear some haunting growls before VAMPIRES resets at 2:53. I don't really feel like many bands even come close to sounding akin to Ostraca but the band is able to reach that kind of ferocity and emotion until the close. Concluding the EP is "gold rush" which begins like mid-90s emo (Indian Summer and half a decade later Bright Calm Blue) with a sick transition to more modern screamo just after the one-minute mark. Midway through there is a very trippy and ambient piece that builds to the explosion that is detonated at 2:43 and tears the speakers apart as the remaining minute slowly recedes into silence. This song is perhaps the closest sounding thing to Youth Novel that VAMPIRES released and I have absolutely no issue with that.
It really is too bad that VAMPIRES recorded a few years back and then nothing happened until this posthumous, digital release. A truly excellent set of songs, my friends.
Jon Riley and Maya Chun of Youth Novel (aka one of my favourite bands that released on Zegema Beach Records) sent me two unmastered VAMPIRES tracks years back and I salivated with glee. There were talks of 7"s and three-way splits but for some reason nothing ever came from it. Fast forward to summer 2017 and out of the blue they dropped their digital four-song EP and announced the laying to rest of VAMPIRES. It's a shame because these four songs are fucking fantastic European-influenced U.S. screamo. Looky here...
"with stars in her eyes" is an epic screamo opener that helps fuel the EP and deviates the band from Youth Novel ties by injecting more Funeral Diner, Montcalm and Ampere. Maya's vocals really help carry every song on here and it's more than apparent from the get-go, although the extremely tight instrumentals aren't hurting anyone, either. After ripping through the first half, the band opts for a dreamier and slightly softer package that brings to mind ...Who Calls So Loud with the climax hitting home just before the three-minute mark. Next up is the fucking ballistic "it's been done", which is short and goes right for the jugular with sharp, pointed and angular screamo that brings to mind Makara with much shriekier vocals and a darker, less epic and very angry take when compared to the opener. It's also very short at 1:33. "haven't you said enough" is the longest song at 4:00 and comes off somewhere in between the grandness of track one and the violence of track two. The hazy section from 1:22 to 1:55 brings the atmosphere and structure of City Of Caterpillar to mind before the song bounces around the chunky, disjointed midsection. By 2:43 the song comes apart at the seams and we hear some haunting growls before VAMPIRES resets at 2:53. I don't really feel like many bands even come close to sounding akin to Ostraca but the band is able to reach that kind of ferocity and emotion until the close. Concluding the EP is "gold rush" which begins like mid-90s emo (Indian Summer and half a decade later Bright Calm Blue) with a sick transition to more modern screamo just after the one-minute mark. Midway through there is a very trippy and ambient piece that builds to the explosion that is detonated at 2:43 and tears the speakers apart as the remaining minute slowly recedes into silence. This song is perhaps the closest sounding thing to Youth Novel that VAMPIRES released and I have absolutely no issue with that.
It really is too bad that VAMPIRES recorded a few years back and then nothing happened until this posthumous, digital release. A truly excellent set of songs, my friends.
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DISCOGRAPHY
2017 - Vampires digitalEP (stream/donate/download here)
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(2017) VAMPIRES - "gold rush" (from 'Vampires')
(2017) VAMPIRES - "it's been done" (from 'Vampires')
(2017) VAMPIRES - "with stars in her eyes" (from 'Vampires')
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VAMPIRES additional links
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