BLACK PILLS demo
The members of Taxa vary up their whole thing with this side
project focusing on much harsher elements to get their point across. Black Pills is no less involved or
immediate as the post-hardcore thoughtfulness of Taxa. Black Pills create heavy, dissonant
music that is grating and hostile, but at the same time, one can tell that they
didn’t just start hammering away and shat out four songs by the end of the
day. The vocals have a harsh,
static-y delivery to them while music is chaotic in a later-era Level Plane
Records sort of way (or perhaps having a Deadguy-ish appeal) but it still held
in check by solid songwriting.
They could shoehorn themselves in to the crust scene if they had more
D-beats, but the songs are unique and varied enough to fall under a general
heading of hostile, yet creative hardcore. A good start from these West Coast Canadians. (self-released)
GREAT REVERSALS, “Mere Mortals”
Do you like Verse?
Do you like Trial? Do you
like Have Heart? Do you think a
mish-mash of all those bands together would be like the best thing ever? Then this band is for you. I always appreciated that all those
bands had thoughtful things to express, but the way in which they (primarily
Verse and Have Heart) did it didn’t really do much for me. The music generally moved too slow, was
melodic without really having much to latch on to, but the lyric sheets tended
to provide some inspiration. So
the parts of those bands I see a lot of in Michigan’s Great Reversals doesn’t
really do it for me. But when they
invoke the heavier, chuggier elements of Trial I’m a bit more interested. Aside from the mid-90s stuff that I
came up on I guess I tend to prefer my hardcore fast. Still, I won’t deny that this band actually has substance,
clearly exists for a purpose beyond just getting a pit started, and has a
strong in belief in what they do.
And again, if you are a fan of slower, melodic hardcore you will
probably really enjoy this. (BitterMelody/ State Of Mind/ Hydrogen Man)
GUN CANDY, “Of the Third Kind” demo
I had the good fortune to have played with this band on a
couple of occasions in their brief existence and I hope to play with them much
more because they are a fierce and chaotic live group. While new to the Buffalo scene they are
composed of individuals who have been doing all sorts of things in a myriad of
bands over the years, so they are no strangers to this hardcore stuff. Either way, they took the dive and have
cast an 8-song demo tape into the world for you all to audibly consume. It’s not the greatest recording, but
the songs are pretty damn rowdy.
Are they looking for a Black Flag “Damaged”-era vibe? Maybe. Some of the guitar work certainly alludes to that even
though the majority of songs move a lot faster than even the briefest of Black
Flag rippers. The vocal variations
move from straight-up shrieking to spoken/yelled, to some deeper hardcore
shouts. I love the weird
art/mascot that looks like it was cribbed from an ad for mailorder horror props
in the back of a 60’s comic book.
Not a bad start, but definitely a worthy group to catch if they happen
to play in your town and/or prefecture/province/kingdom/reservation/conquered
land mass. (Peterwalkee Records)
PINKO s/t
I randomly came across this Texas-based band through some
weird internet rabbit hole searching and I thought their name was really
cool. I’m glad the music that I
got out of it was just as cool (if not even cooler) as the clever name. Pinko rock out some crazy-ass
90’s San Diego spazz-out scene style chaos on their debut release, citing
(whether they are conscious of it or not) groups like Angelhair, Clikitat
Ikatowi, Song Of Zarathustra, and Nation Of Ulysses, all the while delivering
vocals that could be swapped out with Guy from Fugazi if he was having a panic
attack. In other words, this shit
is for me. From what I could glean
from their online presence this may just be a project band as each of these
members seems to be involved in several other projects. I listened to a few of the others, this
is easily my favorite. Drop your other
shit and do this thing full time.
Make it happen you commies.
(self-released)
RINGWORM, “Snake Church”
I feel like there was a good stretch of inactivity for this
long-running Cleveland outfit spanning from the mid-90’s to the early 2000s, or
maybe I just wasn’t paying attention to them during that time. I was always under the impression that
they were older dudes who couldn’t commit to the road and had grown up adult
schedules and shit. I mention this
simply because now, in 2016, they are much older dudes with probably even more
responsibilities, yet I feel like Ringworm has been more prolific than ever
within the last 5 years. They have
steadily released new albums, EPs, and splits, done a fair amount of touring,
and have continued to stay consistent despite a handful of membership changes
over the years. This, like the
last several Ringworm records, is a motherfucker of metal, hardcore, and
crossover thrashing. It is always
hateful and Human Furnace’s screams are nothing short of shredding (yes, I’m
applying this term to vocals instead of guitars). He’s one of a kind.
This one, however, seems like the most straightforward metal album I
have heard from Ringworm. It
doesn’t sound as dirty, and nixes obligatory breakdowns every now and again in
favor of just crushing with speed, power, spite, and some truly heavy metal
guitar solos. It’s a solid effort
that fans will enjoy no doubt, but lacks just a little of that grime that makes
Ringworm truly ferocious.
(Relapse)
RIOT STARES demo
Right away this band gets all sorts of points for having one
of the better names out there. I
mean, when you do a play on a Deadguy song title I’m already going to be
interested. Add to that some
simple, yet revealing cover art and you got the makings of (probably) something
cool. At the very least you get
some dudes whose heads are in the right place. So musically, this actually bears a pretty strong
resemblance to Snapcase (“Progression Through Unlearning”-era) and some mid-era
Refused (“Songs To Fan the Flames…”), which is kind of weird. But hey, a point of reference is just
that. And both those bands in that
era sounded fairly similar anyway.
So yeah, mid-90’s bleached hair and baggy pants enthusiasts take note. It might be difficult to properly mosh
in Jncos, but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying this band who love pinch
harmonics as much as they love evolving beyond playing just e-chords and
actually rocking the fuck out a bit.
(self-released)
SECT s/t
As far as most supergroups go they tend to not always
measure up. The members of Sect
are probably the last people who would describe themselves as a ‘supergroup’,
but it certainly doesn’t hurt to name the personnel involved when trying to
promote this group. Yet they have
a good sense of humor about it all as they credit themselves as being ‘vegan
straight edge’ and ‘old’. Given
the players involved it is sort of a mish-mash with varied results. Some of this sounds like straight up
powerviolence, while there are the occasional chunky grooves crammed in here
and there (which I can only guess the Earth Crisis contingent of this group
wrote), which feels slightly out of place compared to the grindy and hostile
vibe of the rest of the music.
Over it all Chris Colohan’s recognizable grizzled shouting is front and
center, though it does not always come off as confident as it has in his other
bands. Maybe because some of the
music is a bit different than other bands he’s fronted? Maybe because of this being a project
band with members spread over two coasts, several states, and two countries,
thus limiting the ability to really get everyone in the room together regularly
to get comfortable with the music?
I don’t want to slag it because this is a pretty cool project that
churned out some pretty vicious music that is rooted in ideals I can get
behind. But I think with a little
more time together the band could feel a little more cohesive. (self-released)
THROAT CULTURE, “Everyone Loves You” 7”
It’s not a hard stretch to say that a band from Albany takes
some influence from dumpy NYHC.
It’s quite another to say they pair it with weirder grungy noise rock
and pull it all off effortlessly.
Throat Culture have somehow taken those two flavors and made them taste
great together. Their demo hinted
at these ideas but had more of a post-hardcore feel overall. This new 7” really extends the members
musical interests and makes them fit into their own thing and the result is
really great. If you really reach
back into some more obscure territory No Escape kind of had a similar thing
going, but maybe leaning just a bit more metal. I guess my only hang up with the four songs on this record
is that they don’t always end solid.
A couple of them seem to just sort of drift off at the end, as if they
ran with an idea but didn’t know quite how to wrap it up. But maybe I’m complaining just because
I want more of this stuff. Gimme
more. (Head 2 Wall Records)
Bonus Round:
PREMA, “Drivel”
Throughout the early 90’s when Krishnacore became a thing
and bands like Shelter and 108 were creating crazy music, one-upping just about
every band out there with some of the most intense and heartfelt live shows
ever. Equal Vision Records seemed to be the place to go for these bands to find
a home as well. One such group of
young upstarts called Prema were what was to be (maybe) the next wave of
Krishnacore bands. They released
an EP of post-hardcore leaning jams that gave an indication of good things to
come. And then came time for their
full length. Well, they completely
did a 180 (instead of a 108, zing!), more or less dropped the Krishna style,
and threw everyone for a loop.
Just as an aside, this was around 1996 so the hardcore scene didn’t
really know what to make of it.
They were opening their record with the slow and weird “Sounds, Shapes,
and Shades” before the next track, “Smoke”, came on sounding like a spaghetti
Western soundtrack before exploding into some San Diego-style chaos. “Morphine Addict” probably wasn’t a good
way to impress the straightedge crowd, even though it’s catchy dissonant lead
plugged away like it had escaped John Reiss’ brain and traveled to Philadelphia
to plant itself in Doug Freeman’s guitar.
Most of the songs on this record hovered near, or over, the 6-minute
mark. Even the last song- “Hair
Dye”- is over three minutes of jazzy meandering before exploding into the crux
of the song and the chaos that spews forth from there on out. The whole thing was very Drive Like
Jehu worship, which was fine by me because I was just getting into them around
when this record was released.
Even their label, Equal Vision, didn’t seem to know what to make of the
band. I distinctly recall an
advertising campaign in every zine out there describing them as “Rocket From
the Crypt stylee (sic)”, whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean, and
throwing credit towards the incorrect John Reiss band. I don’t think the band stuck around for
long after this was released, and aside from drummer Ryan Mclaughlin playing on
most of best Ink and Dagger material I’m pretty sure most of the members of
this band didn’t do much musically afterwards. It’s kind of a shame though because this is one really cool
record from some very creative musicians.
Unfortunately, it came out at a time when hardcore was pretty rigid and
this band, who certainly did not fit into those rigid confines, was thrown into
the middle of it. Too weird to
exist, as the saying goes. But I
think it makes for a pretty good lasting album. (Equal Vision)
