Bleakalysis (aka Bleak/Dialysis split 7”)
Leave it up to Hex and his crew to completely bastardize
typical formulas….here we have Bleak offering two cover songs; one by Tom Waits
and one by Unsane, both of which feature vocals by a member of Dialysis, as
well as Dialysis offering another Tom Waits cover which features vocals by the
dude from Bleak and one original, “Things I Hate About This Place” which is
basically the flipside of the song “Things I Like About This Place” from their
last 7”.
The results? Bleak get grimy and nasty with their songs,
continuing to pull heavily from early 00’s Hydra Head/Escape Artist-esque
metallic hardcore-one would properly imagine a live set filled with chaos,
broken strings, and flailing bodies everywhere. The vocals on the first song
have a tad more effect than I prefer, though it does add to the general sonic
carnage. Hex takes the mic during the Unsane cover and he's a natural fit over
the angular slab of noise.
The Dialysis side is also true to form…the Tom Waits cover
is significantly punked out with an infectious, nervous energy that’s catchy as
hell. As mentioned previously “Things I Hate About This Place” picks up where
a previous song left off, even lifting the opening and closing riffs. Like its
precursor, it features some pretty hilarious lyrics delivered in Hex’s rabid
dog style vocal attack. Clever and well done.
Bleak “No
Light, No Tunnel” LP
The latest LP from Bleak is an altogether unhinged affair, a
barrage of dissonant chaos. While they are still basically a noisy metallic
hardcore band, the tempos on this record are consistently faster than their
previous material. That said, they can still bring that ominous slow groove
(See “Crowley”) when they want to, and they execute it to rather monstrous
effect.
The most noticeable difference to me on this record, and
perhaps the biggest drawback, is the new (old) vocalist. In contrast to the
bludgeoning roar of the previous singer, the new vocalist’s range is
a good bit higher, and while it does the job, it simply lacks the power I’m
used to hearing from this band.
That said, they continue to deliver slab after slab of
pummeling riffs, and given their relentless touring schedule, they don’t appear
to be slowing down any time soon.
Praise “Leave
It All Behind” LP
I’ve always thought Praise was a breath of fresh air in hardcore
and punk, and on this new record, that breath is even more crisp and
satisfying. There’s almost a pop sensibility on some of these songs, and while
that usually spells doom for me, these guys pull it off flawlessly. Vocalist
Andy Norton’s half spoken-half sung vocals have never sounded better; he has a silky
smooth quality to his voice that pulls you in. Anthony Dye’s guitar work is
exceptional, throwing in quirky little twists and turns which keep you on your
toes. And of course the rhythm section fleshes it out and holds it all down all
at once.
As with most React releases, the layout looks great; the
simple font jumps out at me for some reason and the colors contrast perfectly.
Production-wise this thing sounds spot-on. It might almost sound a little too polished at
times, but at the end of the day you can still tell these songs are being played by hardcore kids.
Overall, this has probably been my most listened to record
of the year so far in 2016, and I have no doubt it will end up very high on my
end of the year list.
xRepentancex
“Cleansing” 7”
I sort of ignored this band for a while. I knew exactly what
it was going to sound like, and given that metal-core is sort of undergoing
this resurgence among kids today, I just didn’t want to give it the time of day
for some reason.
Boy, did I fuck up, haha. While I still think it’s pretty
damn cheesy that they straight up stole the Earth Crisis wrenches for their
cover art, musically this thing CRUSHES. It’s only two songs, but it only needs
to be two songs….I listen to these jams back to back to back for like an hour
straight and I’m still car moshing the whole time.
The vocalist sounds more pissed off than any singer I’ve
heard in a long time, and it doesn’t come off as some manufactured rage, this
dude sounds like he's ready to burn the motherfucking factory farms to the
ground! Musically, they totally nail the Undying/End This Day metal-core riffs,
and then proceed to induce full scale riots with their mosh parts. The
chug-squeal breakdown in the second song is probably the sickest mosh riff I’ve
heard in like 15 years, haha.
The layout also rules. Like that new Mindset 7”, it features
a super thick cardstock cover which simply looks and feels awesome. I bought the double LP discography as well,
but I figured I’d just review the 7” since it all pretty much sounds the same;
these 2 songs are just their best IMO. Kudos on some of the hardest shit I’ve
heard in quite some time.
Youth
Novel/Coma Regalia “The Gentle Harm of Tradition” 7”
When I was coming up Michigan always had tons of bands that
fell on the screamier end of the hc spectrum, but for the last several years we
seem to have almost nothing; save for Ann Arbor’s Youth Novel. I guess what we lack in quantity we make up
for in quality because these kids have their sound dialed in and they really go
for it on these two songs. All the hallmarks of the style are on full display;
quiet twinkly parts that explode into driving insanity, desperate, layered
vocals; there’s even some full-fledged singing which they pull off nicely. This
is their first vinyl release and they kill it for sure. They have an LP in the
works so look out for that….really nice people to boot.
As for Coma Regalia, Shawn Decker continues to be the most
prolific man in punk. I literally don’t understand how someone with a job and a
family can write, record, and release so much music, but the dude is simply an
unstoppable wrecking ball of goodness. Anyway, the Coma side starts off with a
nice instrumental that leads into one of the more chaotic Coma songs I’ve heard. It
crashes and scorches for the first minute, hits a brief lull, then puts the
foot on the gas for another glorious minute before breezily fluttering off into
the distance.
Great work on both sides. Recommend the music, highly
recommend the people.
Slow
Fire Pistol-Demo
This band features Hank from Foundation, but it sounds zero
like Foundation, so you can stop doing stretches now kid cuz’ there is no mosh
to be brought, haha. While Foundation certainly had those 90’s vibes, this
band does too, albeit in a totally different way.
This harkens back to the days when screamy shit was mixing
with more crusty, DIY oriented heavy hardcore. The most direct comparison I can
make is to Yaphet Kotto because the vocals remind me of Casey (?) and some of
the guitar work recalls YK. That said, as a whole it just sounds to me like an
amalgamation of the type of stuff I would have seen in a basement in like 1997.
There would have been a literature table in the back, lots of kids wearing
patches (especially Avail patches), and a mysterious pot of vegan
soup/chili/sludge with a donation cup next to it.
Something tells me that’s exactly what these dudes were going
for. I think it rules, hope they do more stuff.
