7 posts tagged “hardcore”

Cursed are a Canadian hardcore band born in 2001, including former and current members of The Swarm, Left For Dead, Shallow North Dakota, and the legendary (for their incredibly rare and equally violent live shows) Haymaker. Their new album, Cursed III, out on Goodfellow Records, is a thrash masterpiece, with a sort of “Deathwish” edge to it (which, I guess, should be kind of obvious, considering Deathwish put out their first record).

It opens with a sound collage. “Architects of Troubled Sleep” sets the mood for the album, but honestly, on every listen after the first, I've found myself skipping it. The urgings to “Go shopping. Go back the mall. Go back to your normal lives,” are the kind of thing I'm really sick of hearing on punk records, in any context. It's just not really all that clever anymore, and I just kind of tune it out, at this point.

Thankfully, “Night Terrors” busts down the door with lightning fast drumming, aggressive guitars and some of the angriest vocals put to tape in recent memory. Lyrically, it sticks to the theme of dreams set forth by the first track.

The next track, “Magic Fingers” is an unashamedly anti-organized religion rant shouted over fast, sludgy riffing and some solid, technical drumming and some of the best lyrics on the album.

“Antihero Resuscitator” is thrash at its finest. And it's about where the album starts slowing down. “Friends in the Music Business” is a song about sycophants over a downtuned doomy sludge with the vocals cutting through, ending with a chant of “Don't call me; I won't call you,” shouted at the top of Chris Colohan's lungs.

“Into the Hive” picks up a little bit of speed, but keeps the sludge intact. The lyrics are about people who choose to live oblivious to the suffering around them by doing everything money can buy to shield themselves from having to look at it. But the speed doesn't last very long. “III” is a slow, sludgy instrumental that serves as a lead-in to “Unnecessary Person,” a sludge epic in four minutes.

“Hegel's Bastards” is another fast song with dystopian lyrics. It's pretty rare that you actually hear a hardcore band referencing Hegel in any way. Not so rare that you hear them reference Orwell, however.

“Dead Air at the Pulpit” is a rant against the people who profit off the faith of others. One of the more obvious and straightforward songs on this record (although, most of the songs here are pretty straightforward). It's another fast one, and it's over in less than two minutes.

The album ends with a seven-minute instrumental, “Gutters.” It ends the album in a fitting way: something that sounds like a fuzzed-out funeral dirge. It doesn't really go anywhere, but it kind of feels like that's the point.

All in all, Cursed III is a damn solid dystopian hardcore album by a band from whom you should expect no less. Fans of bands like Converge, Orchid, and just general gimmick-free, awesome metallic hardcore without the stupid haircuts or the tough-guy posturing will will love this.

Unfortunately, I kind of dropped the ball on getting this up in time for the European tour they're on right now, and by the time I realized they were on it, they were playing their last UK date. But here are the rest of the dates:

03-5 Lyon/France @ Warm Audio
04-5 Milan/Italy @ The Garage
05-5 Vienna/Austria @ Arena
06-5 Prague/Czech Republic @ 007
07-5 Nurnberg/Germany @ K4/Zentralcafe
08-5 Dornbirn/Austria @ Schlachthaus
09-5 Karlsruhe/Germany @ Jubez
10-5 Meerhout/Belgium @ Groezrock
11-5 Groningen/Netherlands @ Vera
12-5 Hamburg/Germany @ Hafenklang
13-5 Gothenburg/Sweden @ Sticky Fingers
14-5 Oslo/Norway @ Garage
15-5 Stockholm/Sweden @ Debaser + Disfear + Rotten Sound
16-5 Malmö/Sweden @ Debaser + Disfear + Rotten Sound
17-5 Berlin/Germany @ Cassiopeia
18-5 Mülheim/Germany @ AZ
19-5 Amsterdam @ Bitterzoet

-Soup

How Quickly We Forget Again

Last Light

Dread Prevailed

O' Appalachia 1 comment

Chapels

Epitaph was recently cool enough to stick me on their guest list to see one of my favorite live bands at the smallest all-ages venue in town. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked. Tonight, I was going to have my face melted by Converge, The Red Chord, Baroness, Genghis Tron, and Blacklisted.

Unfortunately, I showed up a half hour late, forgetting that this venue starts shows an hour earlier during the school year. So when I got there, Blacklisted was halfway through their set. The couple songs I caught were pretty much straight-up hardcore with a definite “Deathwish” edge to it. A fine opening to the night.

Genghis Tron hauled out their keyboards after that, along with a custom light setup. Their sound is sort of like what would happen if you mixed the typical Casio-core sound with a little bit of well-integrated trip-hop. There's no live drummer, but they have enough energy going between the three of them to easily make up for it. The house was already packed at this point, so I couldn't get any pictures, unfortunately.

I did, however, manage to make it up toward the front for Baroness, who managed to cement their place as one of my new favorite bands. They have a definite old-school vibe going on, with a lot of that classic British guitar crunch, and vaguely Maiden-esque riffage and the most melodic vocals of the night. But they do this all without sounding like any sort of throwback, and without coming off “too prog.” And, well, they completely slayed. This is one of those bands who, unless they break up or somehow put out a string of really terrible albums, is going to be huge, soon.

Baroness 4

Baroness 1

Baroness 2

Baroness 3

After them was The Red Chord. Quick confession: I have never liked The Red Chord. For some reason, they just never did much for me. Maybe it's because there are breakdowns where the guitar solos are supposed to be, and their songs are all itching for some crazy atonal death metal style guitar solos. But regardless, they put on an awesome live show that their recordings could never do justice. They have a lot of the kind of energy that can only really be communicated live. And damn, they communicate it well!

The Red Chord 4

The Red Chord 1

The Red Chord 2

The Red Chord 3

The main event, was Converge, however. Converge is the hardest band on Earth to photograph. Especially when the batteries in your camera are dying. Kurt came out before the rest of the band and played the opening riff of “Plagues” from the band's most recent album, No Heroes (I somehow managed to get a picture of this happening despite being smashed between about eight dudes who were all about twice my size at the time). The band came out and proceeded to melt face with an assortment of newer songs (“Plagues,” “No Heroes”), classics and fan favorites (“Concubine” and “Last Light” - which may be the most memorable singalong in heavy music - respectively), and some more obscure tracks (including “Locust Reign” from the Agoraphobic Nosebleed split LP). The band was in top form, and the crowd responded accordingly, many of them blatantly violating the venue's “no stage diving” rule and some of the gutsier ones even taking dives off the PA.

Converge 4

Converge 1

Converge 2

Converge 3

This tour is still going, and I'd definitely recommend checking it out. Baroness is going to be on the tour until the April 20^th show, after which Coliseum (also an excellent band) will be taking their place.

Emo wasn't always a dirty word. Before the haircuts, the “whiny” minor key pop songs, and all those other things people seem to associate with emo today, there was something else. Something more based on the sounds of bands like Slint and Moss Icon.

Active from 1993 to 1994, no band really represented this sound quite like Indian Summer did. They pushed the loud/soft dynamic to its extremes and rarely stopped to rest anywhere in between. They successfully merged the post-hardcore sound with Sunny Day Real Estate style indie rock. “Angry Son/Woolworm” is a seven and a half minute mini-epic with a Bessie Smith record playing in the background, and clearly audible during the quiet parts. “Orchard” is probably the nicest sounding studio mess-up ever, with a gauzy guitar line repeating over barely-there drums before it builds up into a throat-shredding climax, all recorded onto an overdubbed REO Speedwagon tape (according to the liner-notes).

All of their songs were limited to obscure, limited run, mostly 7” vinyl releases and the occasional compilations (Tree Records' Eucalyptus comp, and the now legendary Food Not Bombs benefit, specifically), had no titles except those given to them by fans, and the band never associated their actual names with any of it.

That is, until recently. Ex-member, Adam Nanaa's record label, Future Recordings, is reissuing the band's discography CD, which is pretty much all-inclusive except for the alternate version of “Touch the Wings of an Angel... Doesn't Mean You Can Fly” on the Eucalyptus compilation and the live tracks reissued last year.

Members of Indian Summer can currently be heard in Her Space Holiday (who are fairly popular, right now), We All Inherit the Moon, and The Eastern Seaboard. Adam Nanaa is currently working on a film, and running the band's MySpace page, where you can  pick up the new discography CD reissue for a limited time.

- Soup

The Temptation of Saint Anthony - Complacence in a Bear Trap The Temptation of Saint Anthony Tour Dates 03/15/08 12 Steps Club Caldwell, ID 03/26/08 THE VENUE Boise, Idaho[1] 03/29/08 Portland, Oregon [1] 04/25/08 NNU - Nampa, Idaho[2] [1] With Letlive [2] With xLooking Forwardx

The Temptation of Saint Anthony are a currently unsigned Boise, Idaho band, and also one of my favorite local bands. And despite the fact that we're all friends here in Boise, I think this is just one of many bands locally that stands up to an objective listening by someone who isn't friends with the band. They never fail to bring out a good-sized crowd every time they play, and they never fail to put on an incredible show.

They've recently released a demo (for free, on their MySpace page), they're playing with letlive in Portland on March 29^th, and they're spending all of June on tour. They've been pretty active lately, to say the least, so I figured what better time than now to talk about them?

They started as a hardcore band with a sound reminiscent (to me, at least) of a heavier, more aggressive, Cap'n Jazz. They put out their first album, Beneath the Arena of Drugs and Gold in 2005, and played pretty much constant shows for that whole year. Shortly afterward, all their gear was stolen on tour, and The Venue held a two-day concert called TOSA Aid as a fund raiser. Not long after that, their drummer, Chad quit the band, and was eventually replaced by Dustin, formerly of Denver's Everyday at Sinai.

Since then, their sound has changed quite a bit. Taking more influences from bands like Mogwai, Isis, Cave In, Snapcase, and The Hope Conspiracy, their sound is heavier, and yet more organic, now, with all the aggression of their early sound without the “hardcore” breakdowns, and is now harder to pigeonhole than ever!

What they want you to know right now is that their new demo (along with one song from their first album) is up for free on their MySpace page, and they really, really want you to listen to it. They'll also be pressing 1,000 copies to sell on tour, and they'll come in fancy handmade packaging. They'll be announcing their June tour dates soon, so stay tuned for those, and be sure to give their demo a listen (it's really good)!

 02/24/2008 15:01:33  soup my♥posts www.myspace.com/tosa

Maybe it's less than momentous to debut as a guest blogger with a group as well known as Clutch, but having been a longtime reader, it seemed to me that we were lacking in the angry metal department.  The trouble with that plan, however, is that most metal sounds more or less like this to me:

After a very short amount of time, I tune out.  Still, I've been taught that it's unhealthy to keep my anger bottled up, and I often find myself in need of a good, angry, ass-kicking song.  (Usually shortly after dealing with bureaucrats.)  And so, for the good of you who might get a little angry now and then, I heartily recommend Clutch.  After a few times through, allowing you to shout out obscenities and calm the fuck down, you'll find that there are clever and often pretty amusing lyrics hanging out behind the scenes.  I picked this one out in honor of a friend of mine who made a sculpture of a Redneck Samurai for some important gallery show or other.  Seeing Clutch-inspired art just a couple of doors down from the Boston MFA was indeed a fine thing.