Category Archives: Punk/New Wave/Hardcore
Rot In Hell – As Pearls Before Swine (Deathwish)
Rot In Hell
As Pearls Before Swine
Deathwish
Rating: 4 out of 5
Link: http://www.myspace.com/rotinhellband
The waiting is the hardest part. What is it going to be? Will it be speed-punk vocals rip-roaring through powerhouse music? Will it be guttural death growls from the pits of hell? Will it be chanting hardcore anthem that makes everyone feel like they are involved?
It’s what the first song does to us. “Fulminate Of Mercury” starts out like what an entire A Handfull Of Dust album accomplishes — feedback and spectral dissonance. But then comes the build up. Power chords, arpeggios, chug-a-lugs. Notes are added in, a double-bass drum speeds it up without adjusting tempo. We are in for a ride into the apocalypse.
Then zippidy doo da and Shazaam! Rot In Hell just lets it all loose. Three minutes and thirty 36 seconds feels like years of rage built up and now the UK band is puking it all out on a platter. “Traitor’s Gate” is uber-fast, but full of some massively intense rage. They could end the album here, and you would swear it to be the greatest hardcore albums in under 10 minutes.
But they go on, and you get a deeper perspective of the band with Slaye-esque riffage on “Rotting Hell” and a virtuous metal instrumental on “Hallways of the Always.”
You get a sense of all that I described above: the intensity of “Lucius Ferre” that makes perfect kindling for a circle pit. The demolition derby rager of “Coyotenia” and the anthemic “Ars Sina Scienta Nihil Est.”
Let the power trip consume you.
Monotonix – Not Yet (Music Review)
MP3: Monotonix – “Give Me More”
Monotonix
Not Yet
Drag City
Rating: 5 out of 5
This is a band that can clearly have people covering their ears and clearing out a club screaming like giddy schoolgirls over the noise levels and pure energetic distortion. Hell, I’m getting sweaty just listening to Not Yet and I have not even gotten out of this chair.
This crazed mix of a punk-fueled pandemic polishes up the definition of “tornadic” because this band just keeps going to where you expect them to drop dead of exhaustion at any moment.
That is a testament to the recording of Not Yet. Powered by the purist ethics of Steve Albini, this album feels like I am sitting in the same room where they are playing, but instead of the dirty dive bar sound and muffled head-in-your ass vocals, I have a top notch sound experience.
And what an experience it is. As for the band, Tel Aviv has been known to kick up some very energetic groups, but Monotonix is the best I have heard. The combination of dirty guitars, loud cymbals, and great vocals on “Late Night” showcases the fun this band has while keeping things lively and caught up in the mix.
But the real fun house lies in the opener “Nasty Fancy.” This song is a killer of big chords and bigger rhythms. And then when you think it’s over, the band kicks back into the song only to make you dance harder.
“Blind Again” forgets the three-chord structure and gives you one righteous power chord like a punch in the face. It’s all they need to get their rock and roll asses in gear and the listener gyrating in some form or fashion.
Monotonix just created on iconic punk album for the times. Not Yet is raw and infectious and most importantly a great listen from front to back, kicking the “all killer, no filler” saying right in the balls.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:00 — 3.4MB)
The Carrier – Blind To What Is Right (Music Review)
The Carrier
Blind To What Is Right
Deathwish
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Link:
Band: http://www.myspace.com/thecarrierhc
Label: http://www.deathwishinc.com/
Blind To What Is Right is a hardcore steam engine, plowing through nine songs like they were breaking the sound barrier.
The Boston band comes back with a hard and heavy release that goes further and deeper into the East Coast hardcore psyche than before. The title track wastes no time and shows off their foundations for the spirit of true East Coast brute force.
But they immediately travel into territory they have not fully explored in the past, and that is more contemplative and melodic, not on a screamo new-wave melodic sense, but a more sobering accentuation to the sludge-core that beats you up side the head. “Hollow Pain” is the apex of this ideal.
What stems as a cross between the progressive drive of A Perfect Murder and Sick Of It All, and the crunch of a sound that Tad and the Northwestern long hairs created, The Carrier really thought things through and it shows.
You hear songs like “A Stranger To Myself” and “Into Darkness,” and you experience a band that is opening up more and adhering to contemplation. It makes you feel one step closer to a band that is real and true to themselves, making them true to the fans.
X-Ray Press – UVB-76 (Music Review)
X-Ray Press
UVB-76
X-Ray Press, Inc.
Rating: 4.2 out of 5
Link: http://xraypress.net/
Remember the late ‘90s when indie rock had a jangle-toothed fierceness? It grabbed on to you and was going to die before letting go. The June of 44s, the Sweep The Leg Johnnys, the Don Caballeros, Jade Tree, Touch and Go…Shellac! These bands would make your head spin in a great way.
X-Ray Press resurrects the style like a bunch of witches spitting into a smokey cauldron, or two guys (Paurl Walsh and Michael Pasuit) who know exactly what they are doing. These are the core members who make up the band. The rest are honorary musicians who fill in the space.
“I.A.i. Everybody, This Is Everyone (And No One Cares)” gets the saliva flowing but does not really cut it. It’s a modest sampling of what this band is capable of, but not really the spark that ignites the blood flow like “I.A. ii. Bad Beard (God Under Oath).” The abstract jangle rock and a sound that is best described as Walsh using a rusty nail to be electrocuted by a Dan Electro will send you into sympathy convulsions. Or at least “I.A.iii. On Breathing Water” will. Don’t worry, you will get a kick out of their charge.
The band’s gravitation to abstractness is as artful as it is noisy. UVB-76 is their master thesis on dissonant and mysterious song constructions that are an absolute joy to listen to. This band is not afraid to take a chance and go out of their way to make something work. It is what gives them that buzz.
“I.B.v. Chord and Mumble” will have you hypnotized by the combination of slashing Drive Like Jehu-like guitar tone clusterfucks and Hum-like smoothness.
And it keeps going through roughly four sections: A,B,C, and D.
What can be said is that UVB-76 is solid and an enjoyable listen, bashing you up side the head with abstract time signatures and screeching intensity. And if you want to have some real fun, stream the actual mysterious UVB-76 Russian radio transmission while playing something like “II.E.xvii. The Terms (In The Colors Of Our DNA)” to really get into the spirit of things.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 3:39 — 8.4MB)
Living Days – Make Out Room (Music Review)
Living Days
Make Out Room
The MuseBox/EMI Distribution
Rating: 4 out of 5
Link: http://www.myspace.com/livingdays
At the hub of Wierd Records and synth nights under the Brooklyn skyline, it’s only obvious that a band like Living Days exists. But instead of jumping on the (what wave are we on now?) bandwagon, Living Days comes together out of an experiment and the ashes of broken hearts and burnt love letters .
Make Out Room marks their debut LP, released in two parts. Part One is out now and the experience is nothing short of exhilarating. I would say the only disappointing thing out of it is “Romeo And Juliet,” a completely dismissable song. You will understand once hearing the others that surround it.
Out of the darkness comes a blinding light and “Let’s Kiss” is something that would make Pseudo Echo or Mi-Sex blush. You would expect skinny ties and skinnier mustaches, but this duo only presents brute force.
“Go Oblivion” sparkles with synth prowess and neon fluorescent that is more accessible than the dark wave return you may hear at several Brooklyn nightclubs.
But that is where “Little White Lie” comes in. The drum beat minimalism puts a chill down the spine and the synths will send your eyeliner into a loveless fascination with the vibration. It’s a love affair between the group and the listener, or it could just be Stephonik Youth’s dominating voice.
Just don’t get caught dancing in the dark. There’s still Part Two to deal with, but that’s for another day.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:58 — 6.9MB)
