A† DAGGERS DRAWN - New Bruises

Old Motions by At Daggers Drawn

This record, by At Daggers Drawn (website), is all about the building of momentum. Overall, in the 5 songs on this release, the ambient build-ups unleash distortion-layered havoc  with rather uptempo drumpatterns only for about 2 brief moments. Everything else is twinkly or sludgy guitars, spoken/screamed vocals and marching drums that seem to be moving towards a climax, that in 3 out of 5 songs just doesn’t show up. Much like intermezzo songs on hardcore releases, this is dreamy yet heavy punk rock music that creates an emotional and atmospheric ambience, meant to pump you up for the songs that follow. With these clever songstructures, the absence of said climax does not necessarily resolve in leaving you with an appetite for it, they hold their ground just as they are.

last fm tags as hardcore, melodic hardcore 

click the image above to go to the band's merchstore

Tempest - Passages

Death Rattle by Tempest

This must be the most apocalyptic music ever*. Tempest (myspace) play a combination of dark and straight-forward sludge with nuances of that shoegazing -Deafheaven- kind of black metal and frequently some grinding hardcore passages. The vocals are animalistic, almost like Geoff Rickley, and the final product has an intense emotive feel to it, like the breakneck-paced screamo bands of yore. Throw in some profound spoken soundsamples (The Great Dictator speech!) and this immense music would convert you from a nihilist into a darnright suicidal misanthropist. If the world hasn’t already done so.

*together with Thou

no merch yet, but you can always donate to the bandcamp via the link above

Masakari – Eden Compromised

VII. The War Within by Masakari

With this American band’s split with the Germans in Alpinist coming up, I feel everyone should know about both bands. Masakari (blog) is a hardcore/metalpunk band that leans toward the melodic crust branch. Still adding D-Beat to the mix, this is as close as that modern sound gets to the classic oversaturated anarcho metal and punk concept. Probably the most exciting thing about them is that you can’t pinpoint their influences, they just make something new out of the broad spectrum of the genres they incorporate in their sound.  With great succes!

Last fm tags as hardcore, crust, neocrust, dark hardcore,hardcore punk 

click the image above to order merch directly from them

Out Of The Box On Sunday XVII

THE PLOT TO BLOW UP THE EIFFEL TOWER "Exile On Vain Street"

Three One G spearhead The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower (myspace) were not only the greatest and bestest bandname ever, it was also a group that represents the golden age of what was then labeled as ‘ Post-Hardcore’. The band could very well blend in with the sound of bands like Ian Svenonius’ Nation Of Ulysses, the band Antioch Arrow and later even Q And Not U or some other 31G or even the experimental Dischord bands. Out of all chaotic/complex and spastic bands in their branch of extreme music, they gradually developed into a sound that was surprisingly approachable, moving gradually from seizure-inflicting screaming music to a blend of John Zorn-esque jazz and funk-incorporating hardcore/post-hardcore music.

This, sadly, is another band that broke up shortly before a significant album-release, which never saw the light of day because of that band’s sudden inactivity.

Last fm tags as experimental, post-hardcore, hardcore, punk,indie 

support the record label via the link in the image above

White Lung - It's The Evil

 listen to Like Dad by White Lung

Surprising stuff, by Canadian band White Lung (facebook). Basically this is Melt-Banana oriented stuff, but a lot closer to a punk rock sound and mentality. Guitars smothered in an alienating effect, yelping vocals and funky uptempo drum-patterns. Especially the latter make this as catchy as any punkrock band, while the vocals remind of Melt Banana’s screeching schouts and the guitars of Hot Snakes profound post-punk/punk rock sound. I am not stating any obvious influences (although I wouldn’t be surprised if I was spot on), only trying to label their overall sound to give you a first impression. If you’re not sure, you should know I just seriously want you to check this out. It’s briljant. All killer, no filler.
Last fm tags as punk, punk rock, garage rock, post-punk,female vocalists

buy their records via this link

Matsuri - Endship

 listen to Cling to Your Lungs (Part III) by Matsuri

Matsuri (website) is a modern screamo  band, with a refreshing approach to the typical shifting between singing and screaming/melody and chaos. One moment they’re chanting some catchy lyrics with a sweet lullaby of melodic emo music, and the next everything  builds up, and eventually explodes, in a sonic chaos of manic screaming, hysterical percussion and wild guitars all clashing against eachother in an emotionally tormented cacophony of mathy screamo. Or the other way around. This band sounds like it’s a big step ahead of present-time 5KRAMZ bands, with elements that come much closer to the ancient and traditional TR00 screamo bands.

Last fm tags as screamo, usa, ambient, american, real screamo

buy this release or other stuff from their label via de link in the image above

Thou - The Archer And The Owle EP

 listen to Voices in the Wilderness by Thou, as a preview to this record

BWOOOOAAAAAHHHHH))))
Thou (site) play some uh-masing mix between drone, doom and sludge, with a melodic kind of groove that is  so catchy, it will guarantee to get heads a-boppin, but won’t get boring when stretched on for almost 10min. On this record, they included some covers from Pygmy Lush’s briljant sophomore record, to the point where the members from that band, themselves, would never recognise it.  The voice is down right gritty and create another layer of noise to this, otherwise minimalistic, raucous sound. This band has been my revelation for music coming out of the hardcore scene, for 2011. Although they have been active a lot longer. at least I got in to it in time to catch them live on tour.

Last fm tags as sludge, doom metal, drone, doom, sludge metal

too many records on too many labels, to track them all down. found most via the link in the image above

Loathus - Self Titled

listen to The Dream of The Fisherman's Wife by Loathus

kind of late, to post about a DIY band that has been defunct for so long, but Loathus (myspace) were a Belgian band that played the Screamo/Post-Hardcore splendor. apocalyptic and melodramatic down tempo Hardcore, like City Of Caterpillar or Funeral Diner. not the Envy post-rock, but the Mihai Edrisch epic screamo style. with only 3 members, they had dual-vocal elements, very diverse drum patterns and the guitar and bass sound very asymmetric, individually. the sum of these elements gave the band a very 'full' sound and would give today's bands in the broad spectrum of this style quite the run for their their money. 2 members went on to form a (modern) Post-Punk style band OLD WOUNDS (myspace)
Last fm tags as screamo, belgian, hardcore, need to download,real screamo

click above to order a copy that I found, online. I'd imagine that's extremely rare, by now. OBSCURE!

Out Of The Box On Sunday XVI

 listen to Thieves by The Funeral Pyre, as a preview to this record

With all the shoegazing black metal-influenced bands popping up, I start turning back tot his release. The Funeral Pyre (blog) is a long active band that had symphonic elements on their previous releases, but dropped those for an extra  guitarist and a butt-load of melodic influences. When bands, coming out of  some sort of black metal scene, turn to the melodic approach, they seem to lose most of their oomph, to make room for that very melody. Leave it tot his band, coming out of metalcore,  to discover and display a seemingly perfect compromise between grim black metal and dark melodic metal(core). No children of bodom guitar wankery or soilwork whining vocals. Just straight up blastbeats and 180 BPM tremolo picking, that occasionally blends into an atmospheric sound which could appeal to people who prefer that side of blackened metal. In their later releases, they added some sludgy downtempo interludes and build-ups to the mix. But this is surely the highlight of their oeuvre.
Last fm tags as melodic death metal, black metal, death metal, blackened death metal, metalcore  

click the image above to support this band, by buying stuff directly from them

Pills - Not About God

 listen to sterile by Pills

I found this band by checking what former members of Funeral Diner were all up to. Hardcore band Pills (facebook) features members from Funeral Diner, Takaru, Burial Year and Drowning With Our Anchors, forming a band that produces a fairly straight-forward chaotic hardcore sound. They parade with a frenzy of noise rock, chaotic hardcore and sometimes the mathy variant of screamo music. Hopping from rock 'n roll ETID style, to start/stop complex and uptempo excerpts from various branches of punk music. while hysterical vocals are the only glue holding the fickle elements into one consistent mass.

Last fm tags as: screamo, hardcore punk