liked Low Places and want more, yeah? luckily, you didn’t have to wait for long. here’s six more songs! yes, double as many songs as on the previous post! albeit three of them are actually re-recordings of the… three songs in the previous post… but uh… fucking hell, three new songs! and three great new recordings! it starts out with “The Storm”, which sounds like a tribute to Boris’s “Huge”. droning fucking awesomeness, with great amounts of my favourite ingredient feedback. and so it goes. fucking amazing. this release is more coherent and album-like than the previous one. each song belongs together. the transitions are thoughtful and well carried out. the whole structure seems well planned. the track ordering is perfect. each song has quite a lot of different ideas that are all sewn together, without any of the parts becoming out of place. the slow motion black metal get a full blown blistering fucking apocalypse “full motion black metal” equivalent on some songs, but the two main ideas are the Boris-like amplifier-worship-sludge, and the straight up pissed and fast hardcore. and Low Places do both of these things better than most other bands. both when considering the styles individually, and definitely when considering the way they effortlessly sew them together. this release destroys. and as mentioned in the previous post, you can buy their stuff from http://www.lowplaces.bigcartel.com/ – so do that if you have the cash.
archive for the ‘hardcore’ category
Low Places – Low Places
Saturday, April 16th, 2011Low Places – Violent Hunger
Thursday, April 14th, 2011the title, Violent Hunger, sounds like black metal. I like black metal. this isn’t black metal. I like this too. this is fucking sick sludge. it reminds me a bit of Mind Eraser, and then of Nails on the fastest parts. the heaviest parts actually aren’t all that far off from being really slow black metal, but I reckon Melvins is probably more instrumental to the shaping of this band’s sound than Darkthrone. anyway, this is a fucking great band. they go from brain-melting doom-y sludge, to blistering straight up hardcore in a whim. you can buy it here: http://www.lowplaces.bigcartel.com/ – along with some other Low Places stuff.
Dead Streets – Nice Knowin’ Ya
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011from just outside of Boston, Massachusetts comes this loud and heavy hardcore band named Dead Streets. I feel like loud and heavy are definitely the key words for this band. the vocals are piercingly loud and in your face, the bass and drums are fucking Hellnation-*heavy*, and the guitar (especially with the solos) give it all a nice punk rock drive. this is a < 15min demo, packed with loud and heavy. check it out.
Flags Raised – Now Or Never
Thursday, February 24th, 2011long time no see, that’s punk. it’s great to be back. and it’s even greater to be back bearing such good news as this album. because Flags Raised are special from the very first second. no, scratch that. they are special from the very moment you lay eyes on your cover. with the gloomy EA80-esque cover, you just know, already then, that this is something special. Flags Raised are an extremely refreshing hardcore band from Glasgow, Scotland. this is ultra-melodic mid-tempo (i.e. for hardcore) hardcore with not only decipherable, but engaging and uplifting vocals. this little thing is only twelve minutes, which is regrettable though perhaps fitting. they make quite the impression, and in so little time. the powerful vocals and guitar tone really reminds me of Some Mistakes, though far less screamo and much more upbeat. I guess you could identify the obligatory Modern Life is War and American Nightmare influences, but to make the comparisons a little more that’s punk esoteric – if you like Miles Apart, In Regret and Some Mistakes, chances are you’ll love this too. it’s just really, really good. check it out.
new miseries – I Am Without Me
Thursday, February 10th, 2011new miseries are hard, fast and pissed off. if you like Cut Short or Short Ride from that’s punk, or Shai Hulud, or just hardcore in general – you will probably more than like this. with this four nine and a half minutes long demo, new miseries play relatively uncompromising hardcore. they aren’t inventing nor re-inventing the wheel. but who says you need to? I’ve said it before, and I will always stress this: great > original, and original (by itself) != great. facts are that this has a lot of energy and passion. in addition new miseries do – despite not (re-)inventing any damn wheel – have their own sound. “Deathbeds” in particular is a *really* cool song, and I hope to hear more like it in the future. so give this new and promising band a try if you are even remotely into hardcore.
Black Kites – Songs Written While Things Were Charging
Thursday, January 27th, 2011on this album, Black Kites have a significantly different sound. the song structure and approximation mostly stays the same, but the *sound* is different. it’s still – as mentioned – much of the same though. but the formula works. the vocals are spat in your face, the guitars are gritty and heavy, the drums are all over the place, etc. it’s noisy, metallic and heavy. on “And Like It”, there are even gang vocals [thus rendering the record awesomage]. Black Kites go from this riff to that riff, this pace to that pace, fairly effortlessly. They can break it down to a droning ambient guitar section, then pick up and destroy your face. it flows extremely well. all in all this record is really good, and if you liked the previous one – you *will* like this one too. so get it. and buy it here: http://protagonistmusic.bigcartel.com/artist/black-kites – if you want. I’m sure the label and the band will appreciate you doing so.
Black Kites – Advancement to Ruins
Tuesday, January 25th, 2011out of New Jersey comes Black Kites, with ex-members of The Assistant, In First Person, This Ship Will Sink, and You and I… heh. Black Kites pretty much plays ’90s hardcore/metalcore with a little bit of modern screamo. that might be a shallow way of describing them, but that’s the gist of it. Unbroken, 108, and Disembodied. they are not as crushing as Unbroken, nor as “intellectual” as 108, nor as sludgy as Disembodied. they are however something in between these bands, and other ’90s hardcore bands. this album consists of eleven songs, running at about twenty-one minutes. it’s fast and heavy. right off the bat. right up to the very end.
This Ship Will Sink – You Are Precisely My Cup of Tea
Thursday, January 20th, 2011This Ship Will Sink’s second EP showcases an even more eccentric form of hardcore, with way more screamo influences. the metal is still there though. the core sound has not been all too much tampered with, and it’s still very much recognisable. but(!!!), different enough to *be different*. these songs are something new and fresh, unlike their previous EP. so check this out, and learn how This Ship Will Sink managed to advance their sound without abandoning it.
This Ship Will Sink – This Ship Will Sink
Tuesday, January 18th, 2011as I mentioned earlier, I would be getting into This Ship Will Sink here on that’s punk. so I’m pleased to announce that the day has finally come. this band featured members of In First Person and The Assistant, and consequently they also share certain stylistic traits with those bands. it’s metal-tinged, hard, fast and heavy music. metal-tinged, by the way, not metal. this is extremely technical and spastic hardcore with lots of metal and screamo. they are kind of like Phoenix Bodies and Textbook Traitors, but much more metal, and much more technical. if you liked The Assistant’s second album, this should have you feeling quite at home. it’s faster and different-sounding in more ways than one, but not entirely unfamiliar still.