TERROR Live By The Code (CD)by marcs77
If you were asked to name a recent times hardcore band that made it for his name to the level to proudly stand among the likes of crucial-history-relevant-well-enstablished 80's and 90's HC names for long time on, who would that be?
Well, looking back at the recent history Los Angeles' TERROR are in my view definitely one of those bands. And, like their music and what they stand for or not it's really not possible just turning your back on them without giving these Americans the credit they deserve for what they've achieved in 10 years.
“Keepers Of The Faith”, the second record out on Century Media in 2010, was a kind of mission statement of what this band is all about starting from the title and simple but effective cover black artwork with the white lettering of the title, and the follow-up “LIVE BY THE CODE”, out last April on Victory / Century Media, hits that direction possibly moving one step ahead (or perhaps one backward toward their roots...).
The stunning 80's punk hardcore inspired inner sleeve of the record throws at you the bare essence of this “CODE” called out in the title. Is that the Terror Code of Hardcore? Yes, don't get it wrong though. These guys are not preaching a set of rules but indeed they wanna share their view of what hardcore, its history, ethics and the scene stand for.
Is all this only a tirade from a bunch of hardcore-punker than thou guys? Perhaps you could think that (and that'd be a justified thought) but I'm sure enough you definitely need to read it through and make up your mind of what's really in it.
I now realize I've just talked way too much about the message bit that comes along with the latest effort of Terror but yet I think it was needed.
Musically-wise, “Live By The Code” is heavy hitting through and through hardcore that makes it to cut a really good place among their discography and if you loved “Keepers Of The Faith” and their earlier stuff you won't be disappointed this time around.
Aggro hardcore punk with tons of metallic guitars and a few sharp bursts of fast soloings.
“Hard Lessons” is a metallic heavy mid tempo. “Invasion” a track which alternates heavy grinding moments to others where the rhythm speeds up to level everything on its path. Some simple riffage with much of Biohazard-Madball-NYHC feel, fast thrashy hardcore and a killer 80's thrashcore solo.
The closing piece “One Blood” is the more metallic of the lot.
My favourite here happens to be “I'm Only Stronger” (they shot a video for this one as well) where a epic intro builds that feel for something to come and this thing, introduced by scream from Scott, is a great, let me say melodic, riff that stick into your head from listen one. And this is the riff for the chorus that goes “after everything, everything we’ve been through I’m only stronger, for the hardships we refused" The rest of the song stomp hard on the heavy-sludgy pedal to deliver the verses which are sung with a brutal voice that fits just right with the guitar work.
Recorded by drummer Nick Jett, mixed by Matt Hide and produced by Chad Gilbert (a dude who's proving to know how heavy hardcore must sound).
Definitely one of hardcore record of the year -of course, I'm referring only to those album from “first league” outfits.
Check: https://www.facebook.com/terrorhardcore
M.O.R.A. S/T (CD)It is so kinda obvious nowadays but the net is really a great source for anything from the shitty things to the more mind-enhancing one, and of course, talking to our common interest “hardcore-punk music” you still happen to stomp on great bands some 15 years ago you'd have hard times getting to know them.
M.O.R.A. falls right into class of the great interesting and really worth checking out hardcore punk outfits.
The quintet from Helsinki, Finland started around 2008 and features two pissed off gals on the microphones, and band members have been/are in bands like Black Betsy, Spoiled Betty, Confusa and Aurinkokerho (names I must admit I never heard of thus far).
The guys gently forwarded onto me a physical copy of their S/T debut which includes 9 tracks (including the intro) that clock-in in just a few seconds over 15 minutes -the right timing to avoid their delivery to get stale.
Starting with the intro (an heavy instrumental number where they scream M.O.R.A.) their blend of metallic bone-smashing hardcore seems to draw very much from the 90's hardcore.
The two singers swap the angry vocals and this, further to giving more dynamics and a feel of gang to songs, makes my mind more into the idea that the band's sound roots more in the 90's.
As I stated early on all songs never slow-down on the intensity level and the listen leaves you battered and breathless kind of like the poor mouse pictured in cruel wild-life scene that makes the cover art-work.
Lyrically (the lyrics are sung in Finnish) they hit themes like the illusion behind modern consumerism and the search for wealth, fake people, react against those who play the role of master of puppets and being proud of getting your skin cover in by inch of tattoos.
Contrarily to the band I realize I wrote perhaps too many words to share my thoughts on a record that indeed manages to get straight to the point without taking side roads.
Check out this M.O.R.A. -you need to get in touch with the guys for a copy or hit their merch table at a show.
Check: www.facebook.com/mora09hc
END OF A SEASON S/T (CD)
by Michela A.
Brand new lp for the four-piece based in Reggio-Emilia End of a Season. The first release of the post-hc Italian quartet follows just a split with Austrian Many Man Have Tried, dating 2007.
After some line-up changes and the last few years spent building an intense live reputation around Italy, EOAS start off now with a self-titled album (on Propagani Records, out on September 21st, 2013) which truly delivers something special to the scene. About 30 minutes of frantic delving deep into the darkest paths of post-hardcore and sludgecore, not even showing disregard to some death and grind sounds, but in small, measured doses.
Well, the section “influences” or “sounds like” of a review has never been one of my favorite, indeed, nor I know Marcella, Gabriele, Valentino and Mattia in person, but …I feel I can assume that some big names such as Converge, Napalm Death, Neurosis, Integrity (just to name a few) could be part of their listen.
No newcomers in the line-up: yet from the first listening EOAS’ sound shows a deadly impact shooting 8 tracks served with armed-and-ready riffs, all balanced by solid and relentless drums. The vocals, totally committed to Marcella, will bust your eardrums slowly, wearing your hearing out all along the whole album.
Iceberg lights the fuse with true exploding fury, opening with an almost pure HC rhythmic section which naturally makes way for a crushing breakdown. A kind of punishing slowdown, the latter, that builds the backbone of the whole record. Your following 25 minutes will sound like thousands of spring-loaded triggers ready to be pulled -L’insonnia dell’uomo timorato, L’altalena.. – and.. definitely been pulled in Resta and Miraggio, these 2 being the songs I personally preferred: a rush of unbridled rage the first and a sudden blast after an apparent calm the other. No time to recover from the hit, just let the closing song, L’Approdo, gently drive you to the end, namely, the “dock”, the “landing” (translating the Italian word approdo) of this intense, suffering post-hardcore travel.
Check: www.facebook.com/endofaseason
HOPE FOR THE DYING Aletheia (CD)
Brand new lp for the four-piece based in Reggio-Emilia End of a Season. The first release of the post-hc Italian quartet follows just a split with Austrian Many Man Have Tried, dating 2007.
After some line-up changes and the last few years spent building an intense live reputation around Italy, EOAS start off now with a self-titled album (on Propagani Records, out on September 21st, 2013) which truly delivers something special to the scene. About 30 minutes of frantic delving deep into the darkest paths of post-hardcore and sludgecore, not even showing disregard to some death and grind sounds, but in small, measured doses.
Well, the section “influences” or “sounds like” of a review has never been one of my favorite, indeed, nor I know Marcella, Gabriele, Valentino and Mattia in person, but …I feel I can assume that some big names such as Converge, Napalm Death, Neurosis, Integrity (just to name a few) could be part of their listen.
No newcomers in the line-up: yet from the first listening EOAS’ sound shows a deadly impact shooting 8 tracks served with armed-and-ready riffs, all balanced by solid and relentless drums. The vocals, totally committed to Marcella, will bust your eardrums slowly, wearing your hearing out all along the whole album.
Iceberg lights the fuse with true exploding fury, opening with an almost pure HC rhythmic section which naturally makes way for a crushing breakdown. A kind of punishing slowdown, the latter, that builds the backbone of the whole record. Your following 25 minutes will sound like thousands of spring-loaded triggers ready to be pulled -L’insonnia dell’uomo timorato, L’altalena.. – and.. definitely been pulled in Resta and Miraggio, these 2 being the songs I personally preferred: a rush of unbridled rage the first and a sudden blast after an apparent calm the other. No time to recover from the hit, just let the closing song, L’Approdo, gently drive you to the end, namely, the “dock”, the “landing” (translating the Italian word approdo) of this intense, suffering post-hardcore travel.
Check: www.facebook.com/endofaseason
THE WONDER YEARS The Greatest Generation (CD)
by K.Reid
Ritornano sulla scena Italiana i “The Wonder Years”. Il sestetto di Lansdale scende in pista, in collaborazione con “Hopeless Records” e sfoggia l’album: “The Greatest Generation”. Anche in questo lavoro, la formazione, riesce sempre a dimostrarsi molto versatile a diversi generi e stili. In tutto il disco, vengono proposti ben 13 brani, che vanno dai più ballabili tipici del Pop-Punk, quali: “A Raindance In Traffic”, “Chaser” oppure “I Just Want To Sell Out My Funeral”, riuscendo, però, a toccare anche altri generi più affini, ma più energici, come il Punk-hc melodic in: “Passing Throug A Screen Door” o in “An American Religion FSF” e propongono anche, un brano acoustic: “Madelyn”, riuscendo come nei precedenti lavori “The Upsides”(2010) o “Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing” (2011), a mantenere lo stile tipico della band.
Capacità di trasmettere emozioni e ottime doti tecniche, sia dei singoli elementi che nell’insieme; che, con l’aggiunta di cori, stop & go e l’ottima scelta del sound (tipico del Pop-Punk), riescono a rendere questo disco, ascoltabile con estrema piacevolezza. Sono sicuro che gli amanti del genere non resteranno affatto delusi da questo ottimo lavoro, che porterà la band ad un tour, sia negli States che nel vecchio continente toccando nel bel paese: Milano il 26 Novembre.
Insomma non ci resta che alzare il volume a palla e aspettarli in Italia.
Check: www.facebook.com/thewonderyearsband
Ritornano sulla scena Italiana i “The Wonder Years”. Il sestetto di Lansdale scende in pista, in collaborazione con “Hopeless Records” e sfoggia l’album: “The Greatest Generation”. Anche in questo lavoro, la formazione, riesce sempre a dimostrarsi molto versatile a diversi generi e stili. In tutto il disco, vengono proposti ben 13 brani, che vanno dai più ballabili tipici del Pop-Punk, quali: “A Raindance In Traffic”, “Chaser” oppure “I Just Want To Sell Out My Funeral”, riuscendo, però, a toccare anche altri generi più affini, ma più energici, come il Punk-hc melodic in: “Passing Throug A Screen Door” o in “An American Religion FSF” e propongono anche, un brano acoustic: “Madelyn”, riuscendo come nei precedenti lavori “The Upsides”(2010) o “Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing” (2011), a mantenere lo stile tipico della band.
Capacità di trasmettere emozioni e ottime doti tecniche, sia dei singoli elementi che nell’insieme; che, con l’aggiunta di cori, stop & go e l’ottima scelta del sound (tipico del Pop-Punk), riescono a rendere questo disco, ascoltabile con estrema piacevolezza. Sono sicuro che gli amanti del genere non resteranno affatto delusi da questo ottimo lavoro, che porterà la band ad un tour, sia negli States che nel vecchio continente toccando nel bel paese: Milano il 26 Novembre.
Insomma non ci resta che alzare il volume a palla e aspettarli in Italia.
Check: www.facebook.com/thewonderyearsband
HOPE FOR THE DYING Aletheia (CD)
by marcs77
As the first gentle clean chords get struck and the keyboard kick in I right had that feel to be listening to a symphonic-power-metal record from the late 90's (stuff like Stratovarius, Rhapsody, Nigthwish, Kamelot and Labyrinth). Then 2 and half minutes in the atmosphere gets more Dream Theather-esque until around the third minute when a brutal voice a 100 floors wave of heavy metallic modern metal guitars and double kicks drums turn the track into something which are we are all very familiar with these days -I'm talking about modern technical metal.
And that's what you're gonna get a few mere minutes into the listening of the over 9 minutes opening song entitled “Acceptance” -the closing track “Open Up The Sky” hits the 12 and a half.
Who's the band playing this material? Well, surely none of above mentioned acts but it's a modern metal American band hailing from Jonesboro, IL and named HOPE FOR THE DYING.
“ALETHEIA”, this is the album title, comes as the third output they have released and it follows-up to 2010's “Dissimulation”, out like this one on Facedown records.
Reading all above foreword I'm pretty sure you'll have a slight bit of an idea of what Hope For The Dying is all about.
Needless to say this is a work which, additionally to have you being into the genre, needs repeated listens to let its music reaching to the inner spots of your mind and heart and building that deeper kind of music-mind-body bond you might experience if you're open for this to happen.
If you are looking for more (like the American say) meat an potatoes stuff than this not the record I'd go and suggest you to check out.
But if you're into albums who build up listen after listen than you'll not be disappointed here. This really just an awesome record in that sense.
Let me mention the stunning and suggestive cover-artwork by the Facedown's man Dave Quiggle.
Check: www.facebook.com/hopeforthedyingband
As the first gentle clean chords get struck and the keyboard kick in I right had that feel to be listening to a symphonic-power-metal record from the late 90's (stuff like Stratovarius, Rhapsody, Nigthwish, Kamelot and Labyrinth). Then 2 and half minutes in the atmosphere gets more Dream Theather-esque until around the third minute when a brutal voice a 100 floors wave of heavy metallic modern metal guitars and double kicks drums turn the track into something which are we are all very familiar with these days -I'm talking about modern technical metal.
And that's what you're gonna get a few mere minutes into the listening of the over 9 minutes opening song entitled “Acceptance” -the closing track “Open Up The Sky” hits the 12 and a half.
Who's the band playing this material? Well, surely none of above mentioned acts but it's a modern metal American band hailing from Jonesboro, IL and named HOPE FOR THE DYING.
“ALETHEIA”, this is the album title, comes as the third output they have released and it follows-up to 2010's “Dissimulation”, out like this one on Facedown records.
Reading all above foreword I'm pretty sure you'll have a slight bit of an idea of what Hope For The Dying is all about.
Needless to say this is a work which, additionally to have you being into the genre, needs repeated listens to let its music reaching to the inner spots of your mind and heart and building that deeper kind of music-mind-body bond you might experience if you're open for this to happen.
If you are looking for more (like the American say) meat an potatoes stuff than this not the record I'd go and suggest you to check out.
But if you're into albums who build up listen after listen than you'll not be disappointed here. This really just an awesome record in that sense.
Let me mention the stunning and suggestive cover-artwork by the Facedown's man Dave Quiggle.
Check: www.facebook.com/hopeforthedyingband
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