Norfair
Photo Cred 📸: @samrottschafer
When capturing a sense of immense dread, many bands go the slow route. Somber, plinky discordance is the favorite of others. Norfair however, have instead opted for a disheartening wall of sound. Their debut self-titled EP, is an enveloping mire of harsh sounds and soft quiet sadness.
“Asan Song” immediately encroaches on your senses with shrill throat shredding vocals and cacophonous wall of sound guitars trading bleary eyed blows with black metal percussive, as a guttural bassline stirs like a forgotten evil beneath the murky surface of instrumentation. Think wasthisthefacethatlaunchedtenthousandships? meets Flowers Taped to Pens. Second track “Rowan Warber Was Killed by Big Pharma” matches the intensity while adding an almost sludgy segment of hellish vocals and last-breath-gurgle guitars, with a poignantly dark audio clip to cap it off pulled from the borderline horror film Gummo. The quiet beginning to third track “Lying in a Stream of Dead Light” lulled me into a false sense of security, and reminded me of something The Khayembii Communique would’ve plugged as an intro to a song. Closer “Wooshah!” revels in its juxtaposition against its track title and is anything but calming.
The aching soft chords follow a whirling guitar storm before sweeping into a swelling bass riff as abysmally anguished vocals cough out a collective Wooshah! before vaulting into epic building storm of instrumentation towering higher and higher with the clear intent to leap off and plummet to the earth as we watch, unable to look away. When we try to push through the things that make our lives harder, we often find that there is no real road around them. Instead we find an impermeable bog of anguish and ichor and that is terrifying. Norfair seems to know this all too well.
They’ve made abject despair, the center mark on their self-titled ep, and amidst the whirling dervish of heavy fucking music theres a clear cry that seems to shout out “oh the humanity”. Delectably heavy, digestibly short, we look forward to more from them in the coming years.
Checkout their Bandcamp here: Honey Suckle Records
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
01/22/23
Nonpareil
Photo Cred 📸: @zaairul
As we return to our regularly scheduled New Music Mondays for 2023, there is one last piece of 2022 that I want to cover. Nonpareil’s demo, is all the pieces of what makes emoviolence and screamo such comfortable bedfellows, and also further make clear that it’s time for everyone to take real notice of what is happening in countries like Malaysia and other southeast Asian nations where they’ve been making exceptional music for well over a decade.
Nonpareil are very no frills with their approach to the sound. On “Ever so somber, ever so quiet” they erupt into classically melodic riffs amongst heavier rattling guitar parts that are complimented by splashy and crisp drumming, all of which are blurring influences, swirling into a new and beautiful expulsion of cathartic emotional rage. “Hate the living, Love the dead” opens with delectably dissonant chords before a torrent of instrumentation bursts forth accompanied by shouted and screamed choruses of You are a ghost of your former self kicking into a massive wall of sound, harkening back to early Suis La Lune. Final track “Kian Hilang” (Is Disappearing) would feel right at home on an italian screamo comp, with twinkling punk parts a la Lantern and heavy yet melodic discordance delivered similarly to Raein. The song is sung entirely in Malay and this gives an even stronger emotional weight, with lyrics about the slow vanishing of everything and everyone around us, takes on a phonetic nuance that English cannot capture.
Nonpareil have made a standout debut effort all within the span of three songs, each barely hitting the four minute mark. It’s emotional and powerful, with plenty of heavy chaotic parts pieced together by its more tender moments. I would love to see how they’d handle a split or even a longer ep in the future because as always, we greatly look forward to what they have in store for us next.
Checkout their Bandcamp here: Nonpareil
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
01/16/23
The Not Just A Phase Staff Picks for 2022
I hate album of the year lists. Who can actually decide on only one album that was somehow superior and more listened to than all the other full length releases during the entire calendar year and why is your list being published in November when there’s still another month to go?
That being said I thought it would be fun to torture the staff here by making everyone pick their top releases of 2022 and writing a small descriptor on their number one pick. It also tortured me endlessly to compile this list and pick a number one spot for it, so I guess I’m just a twisted masochist.
Happy holidays I guess? Here’s a list of the top albums of the year hand selected by each member of our very lovely staff.
Rob
Rob’s Picks (@just_reidz)
Often I listen to tracks off this album once and it’s nowhere near enough, I have to hit the replay up to 5 times in a row, “Call From You” regularly got played 12 times back to back on days in 2021. Very problematic stuff, I know. For a few special bands you hopefully come across in your lifetime, you’ll hear lyrics and instantly swear they were written specifically just for you. It’s not a logical thought and yet these words came to me at a time when I needed them most. That joke of “your music saved my life” is always a cringey little laugh right up until the day you go through your lowest point with an album and you know it somehow genuinely helped you pull through more than anyone or anything else ever could.
I don’t get nervous interviewing musicians for the podcast but I’m reluctant to admit I was genuinely shaking the entire time I spoke with Grady when he did NJAP and you can hear it in my voice. I have written, deleted and rewritten this review too many times to count by now, so I’ll just plainly say this is the most important band in Emotional Hardcore right now.
I was honored to have early access listening to this and of course was blown away. This album is flawless and everything I want from Emoviolence: hyper-speed aggression with laser precision riffs, jarring rhythms that attack the listener and mix in just the perfect dash of subdued melodic parts that swiftly weave in and out of all the chaos. There must be something in the water over in Australia, like besides sharks and gnarly surfers. 10/10 if you like your Screamo fast and bellicose, you can’t sleep on this record.
The best EV album release of the year. Hands down. Flawless.
Front to back non stop assault. II was my most listened to song of 2022. This band didn’t re invent the wheel, they raced it down the hill until it caught fire THEN THEY SMOKED IT. Seriously the best 9 minutes of Emoviolence that I have overplayed to death this year. Beyond hyped to hear what they do next.
Blind Girls - The Weight Of Everything
I believe in Blind Girls supremacy. Literal legends in the making. GOAT status and all that shit the cool kids say. They’re a perfect band full of the nicest people. This album was everything I hoped it would be and more and I wait impatiently for new material.
Atameo - It Sure Is Sad To Hope For The Best While Expecting The Worst
Still insanely pissed I missed this vinyl drop. Sell me your copy now please.
Social Caterpillar - When You Woke Up To Dances Of Light
This album got me through some sad times. As beautiful as it is melancholic, every time I play this album it’s a different trip. Much better than The Beatles.
Fleshwater - We’re Not Here To Be Loved
I was gonna list this as my number one album pick because it became an addiction to me but stupid Dalton kept saying it’s a Deftones worship album and I’m not super into the Deftones. However this album and everything Vein associated is so damn good.
To Be Gentle - It Always Hurts And One Day It Will Win
Obviously Eve wrote another flawless album. It happens like every second week but this one might be my fav TBG release, as of this date of course.
BLK ODYSSY - BLK VINTAGE: THE REPRISE
Admittedly I love Benny the Butcher and Griselda and Black Sopranos Family and all that so when they did a song with Benny I checked it out and that’s how I recently fell in love with this group. This album helped me chill out a lot this year when I needed something to help me relax this album hits the body and the mind with mellow vibrations you’ll feel in your bones after. Seriously go listen to this shit right now.
TOP 5 EPS OF 2022
The best in the bizz. Seriously the catchiest band in the game. I haven’t loved a Hardcore band the way I love End It in so goddamn long. Doesn’t hurt that Akil is the funniest dude in Hardcore and that’s not a fucking debate so get your head checked if you think that isn’t a fact.
Canadian Pop-Rock with the voice of a literal Angel. 90s influence just drenched in the overall sound, mark my words this band is gonna be fucking massive one day soon.
Awakebutstillinbed / For Your Health - Hymns for The Scorned
Awakebutstillinbed kick off this split with my two favourite songs they’ve ever written and I’ve abused the hell out of their side of this split this year.
Foreign Hands - Bleed The Dream
I’m very specific in what I define as “Metalcore” Often I say I don’t even like Metalcore cause I like maybe 5 bands considered to fit that genre and I haven’t given a shit about any Metalcore since Poison The Well but this band made me fall in love with the whole thing again. Hell I even threw back on some early 2000s era Metalcore bands I thought I’d never be listening to again. This bands sound is from a time capsule but they breathed new life into the genre.
Roman Candle - Discount Fireworks
I mean cmon we did a review for this EP and I put Piper on the podcast. They deserve all that attention and much more.
Dalton’s Picks (@kvijer)
SPICE's "Viv" was on repeat from the day I heard it, and the soundtrack to my summer. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to learn who the members of the band were, especially being such a big fan of Ceremony.
Each song demands your attention with creative and attentive-to-detail drum patterns, demanding riffs, and poignant lyrics that are so easily accessible. It's impossible to get sick of this record, and it was hard to choose a top for this year, but the replay ability is what made this one.
Sammy’s Picks (@ohmucollective)
LPs:
Never mind the 17 year gap between cult classic "The Moon is a Dead World" and old-soul-living-in-a-young-man's-body "The Loser". Jaw-dropping technicality with adventurous song writing? Check. Heart-wrenching gut punches with unpredictable song structure? Check. While "The Loser" doesn't aim for the same frenetic heights as its predecessor, leaning harder on prog influences than screamo, the subdued approach allows for a more cohesive listening experience and greater breathing room, thanks in no small part to Kurt Ballou's stellar production.
Scarred and torn vocal chords pair with angular guitar riffs. Spell-binding synth giving way to furious and virtuosic drumming. "The Loser" melds the tones of King Crimson and Yes through a filter of Drive Like Jehu and The Jesus Lizard. While "Moon..." may have cemented Gospel and their unique brand of prog-flavored-screamo as one of the single greatest releases the genre has ever seen, "The Loser" solidifies in no uncertain terms that this isn't some one-trick band. Living and breathing through tempo changes and dynamic shifts - age be damned - "The Loser" displays a band fully alive in a way few bands are capable of. Time hasn't stolen anything from these artists, instead only allowing them to further refine their craft.
02. Massa Nera - Derramar | Querer | Borrar
05. Ken Mode - NULL
06. Blind Girls - The Weight of Everything
08. Cult of Luna - The Long Road North
13. City of Caterpillar - Mystic Sisters
14. Gillian Carter - Salvation Through Misery
15. Wormrot - Hiss
Eps:
01. Gospel - MVDM
02. Jeanne - EP
03. Piet Onthel - s(EP)kitomanditlanjey
04. Jamais Vu - Demo
Belle’s Picks (@ab.bashara)
2022 had some amazing releases, if this were an EP and album of the year situation, it’s likely my list wouldn’t look the same. However, that doesn’t change the fact that there were plenty of full lengths that initiated the defining of many bands’ sounds and eras, and shook listeners this past year. Here were some of my highlights in no particular order…:
…except this one. Their first album in nearly six years, Wormrot takes the idea of grind and transforms it into a mass of variety and excitement that comes from the presentation of sounds not yet considered by the audience. With a genre whose lengths have been reached in nearly every direction, it takes a certain band to be entirely distinguishable and inspire different feelings in you with every track. Wormrot does just that, with nearly every song on Hiss being a must-listen. Incorporating chilling violin, punk, whispering, and clean (and purely impressive) vocals, impenetrable blast beats, the album arrays a pristine-ly dreadful combination of sounds that melt together to transport you, while still allowing complete distinction of each instrument. I’m a sucker for an album that can build an atmosphere of sound around you and turn noise into an experience. From the running water flowing past you in track one, to it drifting you away in the finale, Hiss takes you across an auditory journey that’s even more enlightening with headphones on. This is one for grind fans to take with them and for audio engineers to admire into subsequent years.
Deliriant Nerve - Uncontrollable Ascension
Triac - Pure Joy - Numb Grief-stricken Animals
Human Cull - To Weep for Unconquered Worlds
Elias’s Picks (@letsgetpivotal)
It was another excellent year of releases and debuts and I’m grateful as always to have had more to listen to than my ears can make time for. Here are the albums from this year that commanded my attention. Some I loved and forgot until this list was being made, some dropped in the tail end of the year and quickly shot up my rankings and more than a few never left my rotation once they dropped. If I had the time and energy I’d do a top 300 list but unfortunately I’m spoiled for choice and bereft of time. I look forward to whatever wild shit 2023 has in store for music.
10. Sweet Pill - Where The Heart Is
Few bands came in as hard as Sweet Pill did and kept that momentum through the year. “Where The Heart Is” somehow juggles this massive sound with a peal of intimacy ringing crystal clear through its dynamic and moving post-hardcore. Definitely the most excited I’ve been about a band with this sound in quite some time.
2022 was another banner year for screamo and Party Hats made themselves an easy pick when they dropped “Fatima” in March. Anguished and rhythmic, theres notes of that texas midwest screamo sound being driven in a whole new direction and I just can hardly wait and see what they come up with next.
When Philly gives us a screamo band I listen, thats a decreed tenet from on high that I adhere to and I have yet to be disappointed. Sonagi brings something intensely chaotic yet exuberantly delightful and its an album that left me simply wanting another go after each listen.
7. Soul Glo - Diaspora Problems
Soul Glo are the most unstoppably excellent band that we have with us right now. They have written a run of albums that will easily be discussed and lauded for the years to come and “Diaspora Problems” for as biting and heavy and eclectic as it is, will be remembered most notably.
A lot of albums moved me this year, but “Louie” is the album that had me sit down and cry in a way that I hadn’t ever experienced before. A truly stirring album written after Kenny Beats received the news of his fathers cancer diagnosis, it is both joyful and pained, undercut with a myriad of samples and adlibs telling the story of his father's life. A headphone album if I ever heard one, this Dilla-esque, wordless ode to a father and son’s love is something that you should hear at least once.
5. Sudan Archives - Natural Brown Prom Queen
Sudan Archives was a new find altogether for me, even though she sat at about two million monthly Spotify listeners at my time of discovery. She easily deserves at least another ten. “Natural Brown Prom Queen” is a beautiful, weird and somehow frenetic album. Her violin playing, vocals, production and beat selection all meld into something that becomes a true wonder of a musical movement and even though it is a whopping seventeen tracks, once it finishes it still feels like its gone too soon.
4. Spirit Desire - No One Makes Me Laugh As Hard As You
The amount of times I kept putting this album on after the first time I heard it bordered absurdity. Emotional, heavy, folky and catchy, the absolute gamut that Spirit Desire runs on “No On Makes Me Laugh As Hard as You” is as creatively exciting as it is simply fun to listen to. But as enjoyable as the album is sonically it is equally gut-wrenching and painful in it’s lyricism. Easily one of my favorite releases that I’ve heard in quite some time.
3. Gillian Carter - Salvation Through Misery
I suffer from a genuine obsession with Gillian Carter. The elder statesman of screamo have lost absolutely none of their exceptional musicianship, crushing atmosphere and overall intensity as the years have gone on. My only complaint about “Salvation Through Misery” is that its not another fifteen songs.
2. Will Sheff - Nothing Special
I’m a stone cold simp for Will Sheff. Okkervil River has long been one of my favorite bands, and every era and iteration of it has traveled with me through a different phase of my life. On his first full solo venture, Sheff himself is entering a new phase, both informed by all of his years as Okkervil River but with a new polish and outlook that feels all at once fresh as it does familiar. The sonic journey of “Nothing Special” is one of both wistfulness and fullness. A found place in a land that's long endured misplacement, this album sounds as sonorous as it does, introspective and this new chapter in Sheff’s career is not one to be missed.
Nothing this year hit me quite as hard as “Ritma” does. Another band with plenty of years under their belt that have surrendered absolutely none of their ferocity to time. As emotionally intense as it is politically cutting, “Ritma” spends not a single minute without passionate and elaborate musicianship. A triumphantly tragic album that cuts to the heart of you and forces you to look around as much as it asks you to look inward. An absolutely stellar debut album and one that left me impatiently waiting for whatever the band does next.
12/28/22
Victor Shores
Photo Cred 📸: @frasiercrane
As you get older, and you're able to look back at the lengthening stretch of life behind you, there becomes more depth to your nostalgia. A taste, a smell, a sound- all can bring a sort of soft, glowy comfort to you and take you back where you were, a decade removed from a memory. Victor Shores’ newest self-titled album brings me to that space, connecting the threads they’ve been weaving since 2011.
“Canoe” is soaring and beautiful, an immediately stirring melody showcasing vocals both powerful and massive with beautifully driven instrumentation. The opening drums of “Bleach” are as spectacular as they are fun, joined in with a delightfully dirty bass and delicious guitar tones melding together to create an infectious track. “NES” is rollicking and bouncy with driving guitars and spacey drumming, with a fine showcasing of ranged vocals with scaling notes and demurely sung hopes of betterment. Single “Chromies” has spirited riffs and breathy bass filling out arena sized drumming charging into a chorus the size of Everest.
My personal favorite “Batman” is moody and hums with a firmly held chaos, speaking what many of us have felt I‘m sure, this pitted reluctance to leaving those we love and sojourning into that lonesome space where we lay our heads at night, echoing in the air with the lines I hate going home when I’m in my head / and I know / I just needed to see my friends again. If there’s one thing I can impress about “Drowning” is that it's the prettiest song I’ve ever heard where someone keeps talking about how much they feel like shit. A genuine call to try harder despite that unfulfilling layer of self-disgust, the tonal guitar climbs and lilts with a moody bass-line pumping on top of quick-wristed and easily arresting drumming. This album just rocks damn hard and makes it so obvious just how consistently good this band is. I still remember falling in love with their People EP and “Sports In General” right around the time I was getting into the scene.
To me, ‘Victor Shores” is as much of a homecoming as it is a long awaited meeting between old friends and just undeniable proof of how excellent their catalog is. If this is your first taste of their work I’d be remiss if I didn’t urge you to check out the rest of their output, as it is all solid as hell. It's good to have them back and we look forward to hearing more from them soon.
Physicals available through Zegema Beach Records & No Funeral Records
Checkout their Bandcamp here: Victor Shores
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
12/19/22
Middling
Photo Cred 📷 : @cmoyerphotography
My heart swells whenever a new screamo band pops up. Life can be jading, an incessant march of not having your joys met or cultivated as we all really just try to get by however we can. So when I see a younger band continuing to release music, book shows, support others in the scene and cultivate their sound, well it just makes my dusty old heart glow a bit. Middling hail from Ohio, a place that once hosted more than a few fantastic screamo bands (2049 anyone?) but has gone a bit more quiet in recent years.
However that doesn’t seem to be the case for much longer, and with Middling’s latest EP “Tore My Heart Out”, they’re doing the work to put their state back in the scene zeitgeist. Opener “20 Oz Gas Station Coffee” wastes no time kicking off with twangy, frantic riffs and tight in-the-pocket blast beats, as hoarsely screamed & shouted vocals all fuse into a track that sounds to me like Merchant Ships meets At the Gates. “Take what you want from me” opens with a tasteful set of licks played on top of each other while a synth organ coasts softly in the background, grounding the melancholy in an 80s aesthetic juxtaposed against bleakly painted lyrics like You wrapped your hands around my neck and I said / Take what you want from me delivered by Touché Amoré styled vocals. Closer “I Think I Tore My Heart Out” simmers and explodes with intense noodling and spoken word delivery against quick syncopated drumming as the anguish of loss is presented in plain as day, with very little window dressing. An earnest and straightforward delivery couched in emotionally chaotic melodies before crescendoing into layered gang vocals closing out the track to leave you with empty silence of loss.
Middling are concocting catchy, clean and occasionally out-of-left-field type screamo. Seeing where they've come from their earlier demos is leaving me with both a feeling of pride and genuine excitement as I watch them build their scene and their sound into something that I believe we can all get behind. We look forward to where they go from here and hope to hear more in the new year.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Middling
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
12/05/22
Spirit Desire
Photo Cred 📷 : @rafsantosphotography
I’m hesitant to call anything 5th wave emo. I’m unashamed to admit that I don’t think I fully understand the qualifiers in a competent enough way to ascribe the much discussed (and frequently maligned) genre tag to anything. Some bands will self-describe with a wink and a nod, others will dodge every comparison like they’re stray geese rife with bloodlust. All the same, Emo is in its most interesting place yet, and I find myself wondering about it all within the multi-genre marriage and divorce of Spirit Desire’s “No One Makes Me Laugh as Hard As You”.
Feedback in to fuzzy guitars always bring a tear to my eye and have me reaching for my Big Kids records, as “The Sweater Song, Part 2: Even Sweatier” is both bouncy and punk as fuck with echoing vocals that sing and lilt into pogo inducing pop chords. Saccharine and coated with sardonic bemusement, “A Streetcar Named Spirit Desire”, sonically plays homage to Tennessee Williams, shifting through 3 acts. Docile bass strums thumb slowly alongside soft-hand drumming as a lamenting croon of Why’d I have to run into you? / Why’d I have to run into you? floats before picking up at a clip, bursting into frenzied yet infectiously catchy instrumentation, with a strained yet elegant closing act of moody guitarwork. The variety the band provides to its compositions keeps me turning back to this album over and over again.
From acoustic self-contained aria “Pelmo Crescent”, to the melodic and fuzzy folk yell of “Loveliness (Bug Song)” (don’t think that we missed that Simple Plan callback in there), nestled up against “Shy Guys” a moving track that sounds like if Hum wrote their version of a waltz, the album paces itself quite excellently. My personal favorite is the openly somber but insanely lush “Grange Park Lawn Darts” with its stuttering and heart fluttering buildups, like words caught in your throat, finally uttered with demure surrender: We will never have a home / Above the basement / Couldn’t move out / Even if we tried / Aren’t you so tired? A line as frigid as a creeping Canajun fall breeze, snuffing that light in your heart to grow the pit in your stomach. The sparkling acoustic, “Bro, We Did It” melds into the fuzzy and tender racket of “Good Riddance!!!” before pitching headlong into the gorgeous textures and very heavy genuine bummer that is “Adventures”
Final song “Tombstoned” is frenetic, as shrieking vocals undulate against panicked percussives and viscous ghost-in-chains basslines. Languishing in the sarcophagal nature of depression, flashbacks of a filthy room and despondent living were all brought in front of me again in an all too real way. This album is ever shifting, with its form unknowable but expressing an energy that is easily perceived. A matchup of anxiety, longing, and defeat all set to catchy, gut-wrenching, bleary eyed instrumentation and vocals, Spirit Desire easily gives sound and motion to our most entrenched internal struggles and poetically enshrines the failed connections we barely manage to survive and even the ones we don’t.
The swell of emotion that this album finds and communicates at regular intervals is enough to conjure aching nostalgia and listlessness, while making it an absolute pleasure to experience. “No One Makes Me Laugh as Hard As You” has easily become one of my favorite releases this year and is in strong contention for album of the year in my book. 5th wave or not, we impatiently await Spirit Desire’s next move and look forward to whatever they bring us next.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Spirit Desire
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
11/28/22
Who Put Bella In The Witch Elm
Photo Cred 📷 : @moongazer.studios
If there's one thing I love as much as a long song title, it's definitely a long band name. A band’s identity is sometimes the first piece of story that you receive, even before the music. Who Put Bella in the Witch Elms name led me down a very deep rabbit hole about a still unresolved murder and the mystery graffiti that inspired the band’s moniker and I must say the lore compliments the sound very well here, especially on their latest 3 song EP “...In The Place Where I Tried To End It All”.
Opening track “Dagger” is driving and potent with throaty shrieks and screams sprinting alongside distorted and sweeping guitar riffs, basslines like shifting tectonic plates with discordant and syncopated drumming all fused into a piercing sonic spear crescendoing into a massive chorus near the middle section just before being carried out on an almost-danceable-cascade of melodic strings and percussions. “The Tree” is no Raein reference but a wistful yet brooding interlude much in the way a stormfront stares you down from miles away, it strums darkly with a layer of feedback gently brushed across the top for good measure. Final track “Agua En Mis Manos” (water in my hands) is half screamed in Spanish, adding a punchy layer of linguistic complexity to the scaling guitar work and huge drum fills, reminiscent of acts like Raein or Kodan Armada. The ending section is monumental as all the instruments build and build to the chorus of Sing my sorrow / I feel you hollow / In the place where I tried to end it all, like a cathartic railgun surging forward firing off into the endless void.
So short and so sweet, “...In The Place Where I Tried To End It All” is a nice and quick EP from the New Jersey trio. Sonically rich and heavy but lyrically despondent and bleak. Who Put Bella in the Witch Elm have left us eagerly awaiting their next release and hopefully, will not have us waiting too long.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Who Put Bella in the Witch Elm
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
11/07/22
Roman Candle
Photo Cred 📷 : @danielleriot
We all need a little subversion in our lives. Sometimes the straight up is what we crave, other times it can wear a touch thin. That’s why it's nice to get an EP like Roman Candle’s “Discount Fireworks” which blends classic Screamo elements with some deliciously evil Metal moments, all coming together to formulate a powerful, heavy and epic collection of songs.
Right when I thought I knew where “Oh, Dreamer” was going with its classic Skramz intro, the syncopated drumming yanks me sideways as malicious riffs staccato and a sharp, crackling voice screams and laments. This particular pitch of vocal style is one of my favorites. Somewhere between Hiretsukan and Suffix, beautifully displayed on “Gaslighting Isn’t Real (You’re Just Crazy)” between sky high riffs and cascading drum fills. Thrashing serpentine riffs and tempest infused bass lines exploding all at once to tell the story that so many unfortunately can relate too, as distressed vocals ask What have you become?
“Survivors Guilt” wastes no time, immediately kicking off with technicolor strumming and colossal fills greeted by shouts of I can’t stand the thought / Of always seeing so much red / I can’t stand the thought of / Being here again / Concrete eyes / I can’t see you here / I can’t feel you just before the song winds its way into an absolutely pummeling outro of cathartic exhalations and blast beats. Album closer “Spit In Their Faces” seeks to shake the perception of those who regurgitate the status quo and never look inwardly. Racing drums, groovy-surging bass, feedback laden guitars masking the almost unintelligible whisper of “Spit In Their Faces”.
Contemporary Screamo goodness with impactful, powerful lyrics and a delicate measure of blast beats sprinkled throughout “Discount Fireworks” is delightfully heavy and spiritually poignant. It delivers on its introspection in a biting and poetic way. Just released this month with their very first show having been just yesterday, we really look forward to hearing more soon.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Roman Candle
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
10/31/22
Boxcutter
Photo Cred 📷 : @mgmphotoco
I'm a very simple creature. I like to tell myself there's some complexity to my tastes and what I seek in art. But there's a singular thing that will, without fail, sink its grip into me, scruffing my shirt and forcing my gaze towards its yawning abyss. To give it a name is to pretend I even know what it is, but I can confidently say I heard it on every track of Boxcutter's debut EP "It's More Like Embracing".
The upstroke twang of "The Surface of Lake Ontario Lies Beneath Lake Eerie" sizzles and crackles like an old Army of Kashykk song, while roared vocals lift and soar like hands reaching for the ceiling of a packed basement show. I can hear it very well here, what could be called a pang of longing, but when there is nothing but pangs it morphs into a colorful ache. "Navier Stokes would Have a Field Day With This One" dials back the speed for a slow waltz of anguish, subdued drums thudding and building to panicked chords complimenting a classically Screamo spoken word section. "At 6:45 AM I Saw Your Ghost By My Bedroom" quietly plucks it's way to a speedy and bouncy section of basslines weaving amongst noodley, electrifying riffs ramping halting into a noisy, crackling gang vocal chorus of our bodies will fail / and our bones turn to dust / like a garden of aircraft / our frames growing rust / our bodies will fail / our bones turn to dust / rest into the ocean / our frames growing rust.
Sublime. The sweet, sweet finale of “A Girl Is a Knife" plunges deeply with delectably painful guitar work and stoic drumming with hollered vocals and spare spoken word. I wanted more as soon as it finished. I still feel the phantom hold it has on me.
Gripping, noisey, passionate and pained but also jubilant and and even triumphant at moments. We absolutely loved this piece and are very excited to hear more from Boxcutter.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Boxcutter
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
10/24/22
A REAL REVIVAL & THE NOT JUST A PHASE TOP 10 ACTIVE SCREAMO BANDS OF OUR LAST DECADE
Photo Cred 📷 : @larvalungs
Let me start by saying I never wanted to write this or any “thinkpieces” regarding the Screamo community for many personal reasons but mainly because I don’t think I’m the right person to do it. I do however know a lot of the people that are the best representation of this counterculture and I feel that this community has been misrepresented at times throughout the recent, new resurgence of press the genre and its community have been receiving lately.
First off every music scene has its share of musicians and fans who aren’t perfect people (shocking, I know right?) and if you’re involved in Screamo you know what I’m talking about, this isn’t a gossip column and there’s no need to focus on those issues in almost every Screamo article I read lately, especially now that they’re being addressed and dealt with by the people that are directly involved in them. Secondly almost every article I read about Screamo states that we’re currently undergoing a big revival for the sound, which is true, but not exactly in the way I keep seeing it being portrayed. Yes, Jeromes Dream is back, as is Saetia and City Of Caterpillar and that's awesome, but that’s literally only three much older bands that have just very recently reunited and they are most certainly not responsible for reviving an entire genre whose community of musicians and fanbase are quite unlike any other music scene in all of the punk realms, no the real revival that needs to be talked about is the staggering amount of new Screamo bands that are popping up all over this crazy planet and who’s been supporting them. That’s right, Screamo is a worldwide phenomenon and a ton of new bands and names need to be mentioned and recognized for bringing more fans and listeners to this genre.
I’ll start with the labels, because without them the bands in this genre would still be releasing their DIY recordings to little online blogspots (and there’s nothing wrong with that, because what is Not Just A Phase if not just a glorified blogspot, so yeah, I’m just saying). Modern Screamo labels from literally all over the globe have been popping up and releasing great music on CDs, cassettes, vinyl and lathes. In Canada we have No Funeral Records and Zegema Beach Records (ZBR also operates in the US and ships internationally) and in the states we have Middleman Records, Larry Records, Illuminate My Heart (my darling) Records and the unfortunately soon-to-be-closing-their-doors, the infamous European label known as Dog Knight Records. These are widely considered the top labels in the Screamo / Screamo adjacent game, you should know all about them and every band in the game wants to be released by them.
They’ve been keeping DIY ethos alive throughout their means of releasing and promoting bands, it is their carrying of the torch that has shined light onto countless bands and many other fans of the genre all over the globe have followed in this same path releasing Screamo & Screamo adjacent bands.
In Europe the scene has Moment of Collapse Records, Iowa has RIP in Peace Records, Malaysia has Framecode Records, California has Self Versed Records, San Francisco has Dark Trail Records and Cliff Parade Records, France has Echo Canyon Records, North Carolina has Semi Collective Records, Japan has 3LA Records, Chile has Kaname Records, Germany has Dingleberry Records and moving back to the states yet again Los Angeles has Repeater Records and Pittsburgh has Jean Scene Creamers (my personal favorite ridiculous label name ever btw). That short list is nowhere near complete and our sound is constantly expanding with more DIY labels releasing real Screamo and keeping the sound alive. Without their hard work and dedication no one would know that Screamo is still alive in 2022 and I can’t speak for everyone in this scene but I know a lot of people are fine without Screamo being in the spotlight and don’t really care if a lot of people don't know what this is all about.
If you are new here though no worries, let me be the first to say WELCOME! Everyone in this community will be happy to embrace you and accept you for who you are. We’re all very open minded so as long as you believe in equality for all peoples and genders no one here is gonna call you a poser. Just come listen to some dramatic, screamy music with us and be whoever the fuck you wanna be.
Now we know the proper labels to thank for keeping the fans ears full of screamy goodness, we should also mention some newer bands that are currently writing and performing the heavenly and harrowing soundscapes of our beloved Screamo genre. There’s way too many to list in just one short article so we’ll just give you our Top 10 active Screamo bands from the last decade that Not Just A Phase would like to shine a spotlight on. Also let it be known that this caused an absolute war in the Not Just A Phase group chat which made this list take many hours to compile so we’re very sorry if you’re not on this list, we should’ve done a top 30..
Please know that this hurt us more than it could ever hurt you.
Seriously..
The following are listed in no particular order of preference, we love all these bands equally.
OJNE: Italy’s finest since 2011 that most say is one of the best to ever do it. Ojne’s brand of Screamo differs from the usual harsher sounds of the genre by featuring a much cleaner distortion tone with silky screamed vocals and riffs so melodic they’re dare I say, romantic? There’s no disputing they’ve earned a spot on every Screamo fan’s top 10 lists so this pick was a no brainer.
NAEDR: Singapore act Naedr is mixing classical music elements into their own blend of Screamo. From their unique composition methods to full use of violins and other orchestra associated instruments, no one's really doing it like Naedr. One perfect full length debut album titled “Past Is Prologue” and one flawless split with Crowning so far titled “Rayau”, this bands sound is as new as they are and we can’t wait to hear more from them as soon as possible.
BLIND GIRLS: From the gold coast of Australia, Blind Girls came tearing onto the scene in 2013 with their “Solace” EP but I feel like their wildfire really started to spread with their groundbreaking debut album “Residue” in 2018. Just this year they dropped all our jaws again releasing their follow up LP “The Weight Of Everything”. Their blend of speed, aggression and sadistic melodies will give you goosebumps every time. When they came through Canada to New Friends Fest there wasn’t a single person in that crowd who wasn’t absolutely hyped to see them and not a single one of them left disappointed. This is definitely a must see band for live performances and they’re already a household name in the game so of course they’re in our top 10. They’re in everybody’s top 10.
RESPIRE: They’re from Canada eh? Respire are like the Toronto Maple Leafs of Screamo.. No wait, that's a terrible analogy.. They are from Toronto though and they’re well loved by all of Canada as well as the rest of the Screamo world. Their black metal influence matched up with their horn and string section make for some of the most unique Screamo you’ll ever hear and it absolutely needs to be heard live to get the full experience of their work. Their guitarists and vocalists (Egin & Rohan) also play a big part in New Friends Fest, which is one of the largest Screamo festivals in the world that's been hosted in Toronto since 2018. If anyone’s helping this so-called Screamo revival happen it’s definitely this group of beautiful people who have been writing some of the best Screamo material while also booking the best names in the game.
SNAG: For the last 5 years Milwaukee’s eco-conscious power trio Snag have been making music that’s just as important as their message. Snag’s music is urgent, yet inviting to the listener and when the day comes that our world is collapsing, I’ll gladly starve with water in my lungs screaming Snag lyrics as loud as possible. Snag has one of one the most uniquely, their-own style in the game. Easy pick. Thanks for the banana and beers!
MASSA NERA: New Jersey's Massa Nera do melodic and jazzy like no other band and they often jam it out onto a beautiful wall of sound that once finally formed, instantly races towards car crash tempos showcasing the sheer aggression they’d been harboring and gathering towards from the very first opening notes of their conception. The experimentation with their sound knows no bounds either, their constantly changing soundscapes have even crossed paths with violins and I can only imagine they’ll be yet again breaking new grounds with their next full length album “Derramar | Querer | Borrar” releasing December 2nd through Zegema Beach Records and the Screamo wizard David Norman has said that this one may be his AOTY pick.
GILLIAN CARTER: Orlando based Screamo veterans Gillian Carter have been a band composing innovative Screamo sounds for seventeen (soon to be eighteen) entire years. By 2024 the band will be legal drinking age here in Canada. That’s an absolutely insane amount of time to be a band, especially in this genre known for having bands come and go very quickly. Despite being the second longest running Screamo band of all time, next to Envy, Gillian Carter also do whatever the hell they want sonically from album to album their styles change and evolve freely while they flawlessly incorporate a blending of so many genres that it’s impossible to put them in a box. Their most recent release was exceptionally aggressive compared to their previous work, the album titled “Salvation Through Misery” is another masterpiece in their vast collection that you need to listen to and purchase at Skeletal Lightning.
TO BE GENTLE: Eve is a Screamo machine. Name one band that has put out more Screamo songs in the last decade than To Be Gentle. You absolutely can't. Every damn track is a good one too, no filler and seemingly no end in sight, To Be Gentle is on a warpath to continue releasing absurdly good Screamo. Their latest album “It Always Hurts and One Day It Will Win” is now available through Zegema Beach Records currently and I’m guessing we’ll have another new release from To Be Gentle coming up again very soon.
NUVOLASCURA: Based in Los Angeles California and previously known as Vril, Nuvolascura have been creating one of the most chaotic, free verse forms of Screamo anyone has ever heard. In a genre that’s always pushing boundaries Nuvolascura is actually melting them. One of the most innovative bands in the game that will no doubt go down as one the best to ever do it. “As We Suffer From Memory & Imagination '' only came out two years ago but it feels like a literal lifetime ago. I know you can't rush art but I need some new Nuvolascura asap. We all do.
PIET ONTHEL: The one man Skramz Mashine from Malaysia (his name is Mashi so please forgive my pun, that typo was very intentional). Mashi is the sole owner of the brains behind the Malaysian Emoviolence act known as Piet Onthel. Often Emoviolence bands rip breakneck speeds too fast to capture a proper melody. Don’t get me wrong I love a mean trem-picked octave scale but Mashi is capturing insanely creative melodies that this subgenre is often sprinting past in order to keep up the aggression. Insanely good music made by an insanely good dude who also happens to be in about 15 other bands, no joke, Mashi is literally made of music.
Check out more Screamo bands here: “Real” Screamo (Make Screamo Real Again)
Photo Cred 📷 : @larvalungs
Writer : @just_reidz
Editor : @letsgetpivotal
10/23/22
Career Day
Photo Cred 📷 : @bobbograph
Career Day calls Queens, New York home and you can hear it in their sound. The busyness of the streets, the shuffling of pedestrians, careening bike messengers and blossoming young lovers, all nebulously tied to the tangled network of social and societal issues that make the universe of New York City so complex and alive. It’s in their newest album “Where We’ve Always Been” that the band observes, confronts and even tackles these intricacies.
Conceptually, the opener “Views From the 516” sets the tone for the album, as lyrics of redlining, crooked school boards and falsely advertised suburban paradise soar amongst anthemic Emo-Punk riffs, like if The Junior Varsity crooned about classwars with fuzzy cutting guitars rifling along to a thunking drum section. “No Problem” noodles and buzzes with a rattling bassline, recalling moments of casual racism amongst a friendship dissolving. “It Never Ends” cries afoul of limp-dicked liberalism asking what are we really doing here as the unchanging environment carries on. Tracks “A New Title”, “Opposite Way”, “If Only” and “Enough Pictures” runs the gamut of nectariously sweet love songs to the mourning of time passed and gratitude ungiven.
My personal favorite track “Party’s Over” noodles in before erupting into cascading guitar work as a catchy, bouncy bass riff over colossal drumming like a clenched fist waiting to be sunk in the puckered smirk of eliteness itself. “Thanks For Listening” points but does not look through the fourth wall of the albums narrative, a rollicking and melodic gaze outward to what allyship and solidarity realistically look and feel like. Being impassioned about what ails us culturally and sharing it with a sympathetic ear is important, but when they aren’t in the streets with you, it's hard not to wonder what you yourself are even doing anymore. “21,000 Questions” is absolutely my kind of closer. Arena sized riffs ricochet off of massive drumwork with lyrics reminding us of the love that awaits us and saves us at the end of every day.
An album like “Where We’ve Always Been” is one that catches you off guard with its lyricism when music like this is typically more introspective or even irreverent. Pop glazed Emo-Punk needs more of these realms of thought in them and we are very glad to have a band like Career Day championing that banner.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Career Day
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
10/17/22
To Be Gentle
Photo Cred 📷 : @kaymariephoto
The year as a temporal concept is weak. It does little to capture the enormity of what can happen within it. It has become more a measurement than a value system and this is failing us. We are so unmoved by time in this way that we forget how tightly it holds on to us.
To Be Gentle's music is the arm ticking in our minds, this penetrative clatter of gears reminding us of the inevitable march and how it seems to wrap around our very flesh.“It Always Hurts and One Day It Will Win”, comes to us towards the end of the year as time truly begins to blink days away through retreating sunlight while the air tightens as it chills. Flickering strums of twangy chords open the album as “The Crevices In My Head Are Filling With Black Water” exhales ambience only to sharply inhale with a crackling cymbal surging behind wall of sound riffs that feel as though they’re enveloping you, a rising tide of black as pitch sound steadily swells, as I felt it in my gut, then my chest, until I felt it creep up my neck and blur my eye-line into “I Worship What Will Kill Me”. Seamlessly kicking off into urgent and harried guitar work, the first shrieks collide against you as the rise and fall thump of the melodies float and crash into repeated screams of Hell is real / And it rots in my brain.
Switching time signatures and crisscrossing melodic scales foretell the air of sailing straight into an unforgiving storm. The lurch forward of guttural growls and shrapnel blasted screams that begin “It Always Hurts And One Day It Will Win” is not unlike that of rolling, massive swells with the song title serving as the 6th instrument, hanging on top of the track like a piercing a pair of glowing red eyes beneath a turbid murky wave. Ambient, yet dissonantly luscious “We Are All Connected and We All Love You” gives way to “Greenhug”, a more polished version than the version on the 5-way split Worlds Collide (https://thecivilwarinfrance.bandcamp.com/album/worlds-collide) yet still maintains its thematic guitar-work, blended with classic Emo elements and anthemic sonics. “Peace Be Still” calmly strums in with a melancholic yet resolute bassline as the drum kit sinks and strokes into intricate fretwork met with rejoined vocals and blast beats.
To Be Gentle’s capturing of a feeling and time is most present here with that shout to the heavens skywardness of the last half of the track is peak Screamo perfection. I’d be remiss without mentioning the exceptional ambient work that decorates the album, especially on “The Willow Tree In Our Backyard”, a title that bleeds sentimentality and weeps of the past tense in the most painful way possible. Eves’ tranquil guitar-work fuzzes out delicately like a good dream that you dread waking up from. A painting of this stormy wakefulness comes back with “Every Time”, a stolid march that bursts forward with restraint before surging into a triumphantly riff punctuated by almost lullaby-like bass work. Pangs of forgotten memory were awoken in me when “I Have Seen You and I” kicked in serving as the sort of soft intro for album closer “The Love I Have To Give Will Not Die With Me”, an amalgam of all the excellent moments of the 20 plus minutes, it is both inward looking and outwardly cathartic.
Cascading and exploding, every second of this track bleeds pure emotional release from intro to bridge to interlude, all the way to the exultant finale. To Be Gentle have always lived up to their namesake to me. An attempt at trying to show restraint and often failing but with the intention of trying being the important piece. “It Always Hurts and One Day It Wiill Win” marks what I believe to be the 18th release from the band and they have this year alone emulated sprawling and varied experiences across multiple releases.
A year can be incredibly long for people who struggle with their mental health or are steeped in grief. Thankfully it can feel a lot shorter and a lot less lonely with To Be Gentle’s work to accompany us. We look forward to what they will bring us in the next year.
“It Always Hurts and One Day It Will Win” will be out on Zegema Beach Records October 7th.
Check out their Bandcamp here : To Be Gentle
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
10/03/22
Zero
Photo Cred 📷 : @kanamerecords
0, yes just 0, came across my ears by way of NJAP friend and former compatriot Fernando Forbattle. 0 by 0, is an EP served up like an old Screamo classic. Sparse information, no lyrics, lo-fi recording quality, with all the passion of a larger, more polished release.
Beginning a sequentially named series of tracks, “1” kicks off with a jangly and urgent tempo that meets a reverbed shout, melding into splashy, crisp cymbals sprinting alongside a melancholy rhythm section. “3” comes in with equal urgency and rhythm and clattering drums compliments a lonesome pained guitar riff. Contained within the bands 2000s era demo days recording technique is that ever present drive and burn to push forward. Hailing from Medellin, 0 make up a short list of bands within the genre that hail from Columbia.
The driving and powerful “4” kicks in with an almost European Emoviolence tinged melody, dramatically building and surging into a quick tonal pivot of a pressure building rapport between guitars and drums before spiraling out of control in a mass of cathartic shouts and instrumentation. Of course, I’m an absolute sucker for “6”. A moody interlude with a sampled monologue will always be one of the more important artforms in the genre to me and 0 executes it here almost to perfection.
As quickly as it arrives, it goes. 0’s first offering is certainly one we’ve gauged with interest, and hopefully one that will lead to something even greater. We look forward to hearing even more from them in the future.
Cassettes for this album will be available through Kaname Records coming this October.
Check out their Bandcamp here : 0
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
09/26/22
Widowdusk
Photo Cred 📷 : @ohlust
Sometimes I find myself chasing something when listening to music. I become fixated on a feeling, a high I’m searching for. There is this subtle ache that I can hear and almost like a salve, it calms me down in a way few things can. There’s a commonality that I can feel through Widowdusk’s music, a meeting point of what that all feels like, you know that spot in the room we all stare at with bleary eyes and a catch in our throats of broken promises and wishful thinking at 3 am. “I Know Where We’re At, Not Where We’re Going” is all of that stretched across 18 minutes, delivered with I-swear-to-god-I’m-trying honesty.
We start with “Knots'' wheeling about a shattered relationship. Lyrics of regret mingling with plinking, morose guitars as the bass glowers on through sharp, acute drums. Reminiscent of Ezra Joyce’s “Holmes and Chicago”, the vocals seem to wretch themselves from the back of the larynx, urgently pleading to be heard. While awash in the dissonance of “Selfless”, the melodic guitars leap into a salvo of cascading and enveloping drums, tugged at that intangible piece in me that really wished to be better.
There's a punch of Junior Healy echoing in there, though Widowdusk emulates in the way an alchemist repurposes what was to make what is new. The gentle instrumentation opening lull of “Holding On” builds to slowly burst and slow again, dripping back into a steadied pace of guitars, drums and a restrained bass rumbling like a thunder storm 3 towns over before a repeated let go, chases its brother let go, to rejoin the chorused LET GO, and the clattering of all members vying for the source of release wind through riffs and strums, clangs and thumps to quietly taper off, before a lone guitar melody grasps and hopes one last time.
Widowdusk hail from California, and in the unbridled golden rays of our unflinching sun, they’ve managed to allow us a window into the clouded and often unlit recess of what it means to fail and to feel the hurt of failing. This is where we find our common ground. There we find our salve.
We are very excited for what the future holds for them, and look forward to what they have in store for us next.
“I Know Where We’re At, Not Where We’re Going” is out now and available on tape through Oliver Glenn Records.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Widowdusk
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
09/19/22
Gros Enfant Mort
Photo Cred 📷 : @oni_bakku
The French have a rich and impressive history when it comes to heavy music. From Anomie to I Am A Curse, the country has produced some of the genres’ finest and most passionate artists. Gros Enfant Mort however is a newer spin on the time honored tradition of French Emotional Hardcore. The band is the single minded effort of drummer Alexis Johk, formerly of Emo Punk outfit “Johk”.
With Gros Enfant Mort however, Alexis explores the darker and heavier side of Emo. Opening track “La ruine” has all the pieces of what makes French Screamo so unique, the ambient and gripping guitar tone driven forward by tightly wound drumming and crackling shouts that lead to slower Post-Hardcore caked moments of scaling catharsis. “Egotropisme” is riddled with dark and depressive imagery, lyrically as dark as anything else on the album, it sets itself apart by churning slowly into a full wind up of charging guitars, screams and drums conjuring the claustrophobic desperation of living upon the Clain. Multiple moments on “Les Années Vides” make you forget that this is all one person.
The precise orchestration of everything falling into each section of the song feels like multiple people tapping into something special, let alone a single person composing all of this on their own. Album finale “L’enfer C’est Vieillir” mimics the slow walk into dusk, with a single guitar driving the beginning of the track. Alexis joins in opening on people who have helped him and his failure at sharing his gratitude for them as a thumping drum interlude unlocks a discordant bridge of a soaring riff resplendent with hope plucked quickly into silence as he shouts: On laissera tomber toutes nos chimères quand retentira le dernier accord.
Despondent, bleak, heavy and wracked with the anxieties of the modern world Gros Enfant Mort’s self-titled is something we thoroughly enjoyed and resonated with. We look forward to the new releases coming in the future.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Gros Enfant Mort
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
09/12/22
Dana Sterling
Photo Cred 📷 : @therecanbeonly1
There are portents that you can sometimes hear in new music that just indicate complete surrender to it, I'm assuming it's not unlike lightning striking you. Within the first 30 seconds of Dana Sterling’s debut EP “Departure” I felt my hair begin to stand on end, my tongue tasted copper in the air and my flesh felt as though it was ready to radiate pure energy. What followed was one of the the finest pieces of Screamo music I'd heard in years.
“The Space We Keep” immediately seized my attention, jockeying two dueling vocals, one: an overflow of impassioned shouting, the other a shattered glass expulsion of rage, sprinting across discordant and calculated guitars, into a triumphant finish. Something very special is being captured here. There are moments that fill the Suffix-sized hole in my heart I've had for about a decade, with riffing bass lines that call upon the spirits of Welcome the Plague Year, incisive lyrics on the violations of the homeless, domestic abuse, the failings of capitalism, class warfare, the racial disparities and police violence that plague this country, all swirling and alive, like that aforementioned bolt of lightning has been transmuted to sound waves and brought to our ears.
Hailing from Minneapolis, the band wrote through the early stages of the pandemic as the George Floyd protests swelled into the public consciousness and the seeds of the current worker unrest were taking root. This feels especially potent as I sank into the gallant riffs of “Calm Simple Sweet”, the scaling shrieks urgently climbing, that classic moment of a lone guitar strumming while the drums pick up a steady and determined pace I’m met with a heartfelt delivery of spoken word peaking and crashing down into a howled and driving chorus of Where did you come from? Why is this home? What is the point in refusing to grow? When bitterness turns to bloodshed and control, before releasing and winding out quietly. With “In Violence We Trust”, a melodic yet uniformly intense call to action, the only thought I had upon it's conclusion was “I need to hear this again immediately”.
Heavy, powerful and biting, this 6 song EP is a blistering and borderline perfect offering of superb, contemporary Screamo with powerful social commentary but more importantly, the glimmer of hope that things can be better as long as we hold on to one another. We excitedly await whatever the band has in store for us next, and we would like to echo the message they've left for us: Solidarity. Always.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Dana Sterling
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
09/05/22
Vs Self / Knumears
(Knumears) Photo Cred 📷 : @mikeqmckay
It has become a motif in recent years, where we see more and more, that contemporary bands carry forward the sounds of the wave prior to them innovating upon it in fun and exciting ways. VS Self however have decided to reach even further back, to the days of Emotive Hardcore, recalling sounds and feelings from packed house shows and VFW halls featuring the likes of Embrace, Boys Life and Indian Summer. Showcasing an enigmatic mix of screaming, shouting and singing amongst colorful drumming and al dente style noodling, VS Self’s sound feels close to home while also displaying something far afield in the scene, a decidedly fresh take on the 90s sound. Compositionally, songs like their opening track “Maudlin” or the 2nd to last cut “Departures” flash me back to moments on Science (Indian Summer) or Departures and Landfalls (Boys Life). When it comes to their closer, “Steep”, they keep it short, sweet and earnest.
Knumear’s side however is quite different. It's recorded softly, yet still comes across as quite huge. A band who you can clearly hear have a must-see live show in them. With vocal fried shrieks and huge drums that kick across unsparingly dirty guitar and bass to craft a mountain of noise to behold. There's a gnashing whirlwind of ideas happening on “I love you now I love you never” and personally I love them all. Call me old fashioned but there's a certain grit that's comes from a recording like this that I'll take over a cleaned and polished final product on any day of the week. Which isn’t saying enough about how Knumears manage to own their side of the split in a deeply visceral way. “Threehundredsixtyfive Days In A Week” feels like watching a boat fade into a stormy horizon from the shoreline. The buzzsaw quality of the guitars and rumbling, thunderous bass lines carry into a calm interlude of pained plucking and strumming before swelling and converging back into a rolling and frothing cascade of shouts, crashing cymbals and riffs.
Nothing excites me more than promising young bands, especially when they're from my home state. Knumears and VS Self have added a fantastic contribution to the tradition of the true blue Screamo split. We look forward to seeing what they both have in store for us next.
Both sides of the tape are hosted individually on the bands respective Bandcamps, with the whole tape for sale on each bands respective page.
Check out their Bandcamps here : VS Self / Knumears
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
08/29/22
Leg Day
Photo Cred 📷 : @chumpire
There's something to be said for a regional sound. A distinguishing marker that feels as inseparable from a city or area as the landscape that defines it. And when it comes to Pennsylvania there is none more distinct than the signature drive and unique energy that Punk and Emo have etched into the regions DNA. Leg Day, while another addition to the history of the sound, have managed to make their own distinguished notch in the scene, and with their “Imagination & Delusions” release this past February, they've collected and presented a fine example of why that is.
The subdued yet tangible ferocity of “Imagination & Delusion” is cast across a wide 14-track album, a sort of here-as-we-were and here-as-we-are discography, that brings with it the myriad of self-reflective and ink-splotched narratives the band has amassed over their last five years together. Somewhat a continuation of the groups previous incarnation, French in Van, Leg Day lands somewhere between Sunny Day Real Estate and You'll Live. Clattering drums undulate morosely over jangled guitars bitterly trying to break free while strained shouts pine for days that have dissolved into memories. There seems to be a distillation of held regrets, felt especially on songs like “Leg-182” or on the chorused longing for elsewhere on “No Nation” and it's in these moments that Leg Day becomes even more gripping. There's a passionate air of DC Emotive Hardcore, blended well with that Lancaster Emo energy, lending itself to be both nostalgic but aggressively present at the same time. This awareness permeates their entire body of work and makes for a very in-the-moment listening experience.
Imagination & Delusion gives the promise of a band only getting better with time, and while the ambered and autumnal lights glare at you from each track on the album, a sense of comforting despair pairs with it, like frostbite thawing in front of a warm winter fire. Leg Day have tempered an environment perfect for these soon to be short fall days, and hopefully with the subsequent rise and fall of winter, we’ll find them with something to show us once more.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Leg Day
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
08/22/22
Edith Pike
Photo Cred 📷 : @artsbax
Edith Pike are a brand new group from the lush glacial passes of the Colorado area. Entering with a quick spread of influences across their first track “Tunnel Twenty-Nine”, Edith Pike harkens back to the era of scrappier, lofi tinged demo recordings from the mid to late aughts, providing noisy playback amongst gravely-throated shouts for a gritty, yet DIY as fuck effect.
“...And Then It All Comes Down” would have rested comfortably on the first Emo Annihilation comp, it's driving guitars churning out heavy chugs provide the backdrop for glowering choruses and crashing cymbals that shatter like glass. I don't know who these kids are but the way they emulate a nostalgic era for me while also providing those touches of Modern Screamo really speak to me on a deeper level.
Their third track “Rushing Into a Burning Home” has all the makings of a contemporary Funeral Diner song with the grit to match, all the way down to the old movie sample it opens with. After they close out with a track titled “Kiss Me Here Beautiful For These Are Truly Our Last Days” I found myself cycling back to track one again and giving it another play-through.
Clocking in at about 12 minutes, this self-titled EP doesn't over stay it's welcome and we’re looking forward to Edith Pike's next offering.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Edith Pike
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
08/15/22