Middling
Photo Cred 📷 : @sixtysixsixtysixes
Many of you may know how much I love Middling. The Ohio band’s “Tore my Heart Out” EP was one of my favorites last year when it dropped in November and the band has been cultivating a special niche in the scene with their unique brand of multi-faceted screamo . I’m happy to say that their latest three song short player, “Wings and the arteries that reach them” is not only a further progression of their sound but is equally as impassioned and potent.
“$1000 or 6 years” opens with a sweet soaring riff before being greeted by sharp, vocal blast beat shrieks. Technical noodling winds and strums as mo meet and form into something new. The stop-start-stutter that Middling have made a signature of their sound leaves and returns with aplomb as the track pauses for breath before filling its lungs again and coming back with even more intensity.
Start to back, chugs and roars, “I swear I’m not a backpacker” blends explosive drumming guttural metalcore-esque shouts. By far the heaviest of the three songs, the guitar racing between moments of emo and wailing metal riffs threw me for a loop upon first listen but had me audibly whispering “This is sick” to myself. The mixture of half-panicked chords and finger tapping seamlessly fuse with the syncopated drumming as an impressive vocal range of shouts, screams and throaty yells make a wholly awesome track.
Closing out the EP is “Birds All Over”, a mercurial and classically accented midwest emo track. The clean twinkling and coarse vocals feel at odds, one holding it together as the other broaches instability. The tangible anguish felt throughout the track ebbs and flows, as the band makes as much use of the quiet moments as they do their instrumentation.
I had high hopes when I first discovered Middling last summer, and they’ve only continued to prove themselves as fantastic torchbearers of Ohio’s long and storied screamo history. “Wings and the arteries that reach them” is pained, its technical, its catchy and its heartbreakingly earnest. I know for a fact the young band has more to show us and we look forward to what they’ll have for us next.
Check out their Bandcamp here : Middling
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
04/03/23
Frightful Places
Photo Cred 📸: @spaceshipphotos
I grew up in the heyday of 2000s emo. Names like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy were considered the face of, but bands like Hey Mercedes, Daphne Loves Derby and The Forecast were just a few of what that deluge of emo pop really held sonically. Catchy song structures with brooding yet talented vocal work are still hotly contested as “Real Emo”, but for those of us that remember the feeling, the shows and the late summer nights, arbitrary genre assignments mean little. Frightful Places reminds me of the best of what the scene had to offer at the time.
The EP kicks off with “Old Frame” a melancholy waltz with potent choruses and soaring guitar. Inflections of 80s and 90s rock can be heard echoing throughout as indulgent guitar lines wind through crooning drum work. A guttural bass compliments the huge hooks of My memory’s fading / My memory’s faded before closing out.
“Still” begins with a straightforward acoustic melody and dreamy atmospherics before slowly plucking to life. Lyrics of not recognizing the joy of the moment make for an ice cold frame of reference despite its summery recollection. Holding our breath for a time, or some kind of phase - out on the shore in the hottest month of summer. Still. Let the breeze surround me. I'll see what I was missing.
The closing track “Stuck” is as dreamy as anything else on the EP, but quickly shifts gears with soaring guitar riffs and buzzing basslines. Hoping for progress, but coming to terms with another empty stop on a long, long journey the lyrics espouse a pained realization of growth not coming, slowly fading out to the repeated lines of I'm stuck in the same place
The solo project of Kevin Tiernan, this self-titled ep is a brilliant 5 song EP capturing of everything I’ve always loved about emo pop, catchy yet despondent, outwardly grim as well as internally hopeless, the album is infectious and not resistant to windows-down-volume-up sing-alongs. We very much enjoyed it and look forward to what Tiernan has in store for us.
Check out the release page on Bandcamp here: Frightful Places
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
03/27/23
Lucidity
Photo Cred 📸: Unknown
This week we have been honored with another superb premiere from our friends over at Zegema Beach Records. New Music Monday is excited to bring you the latest single from Lucidity, the song “A Parting Word” is off their debut release “The Minsk Sea”.
Featuring ex-members of Smile To The Wind, this lush and heavy track combines massive drumming with intense riffs, creating a sonic landscape of gargantuan proportions. The song's crushing energy is a brilliant mixture of emotive hardcore, black metal and potent screamo. Beginning with moody, almost emo-esque twangs the temporary feeling of a Cars Get Crushed song fades away with the intense strumming of distorted guitars as an insidious basslines begins to writhe into cascades of spine-shattering drum fills. The sweeping grandiosity of all the instruments kicks into a delicious blend of discordance and breakneck playing before returning to ominous dueling guitar rhythms. Erupting once more the open-mouth-of-hell vocal delivery is layered with an even deeper and equally sinister growl behind it.
“The Minsk Sea” is easily going to rocket to a lot of year end lists with its excellent blend of melodies and disgustingly heavy moments. Out on all streaming next week and only 100 vinyl copies through Zegema Beach Records on March 27th, listen to their other brilliant single, “The Saga of A Belarusian Feast” available now via the the ZBR Bandcamp and pre-order the digitals to tide you over until release day.
Comic Sans
Photo Cred 📸: @bkoldo
Can a region be the framework of a sound? Long held debates about what is and isn't Midwest Emo have been raging for years. Is it locked to an area? Is it exemplified by specific play-styles? Or is it something that is overall greater than its perceived origins. For me personally, the latter becomes more apparent every year. Comic Sans “Éramos felices y no lo sabíamos” brings this question back to mind, with a catchy and infectious sound evenly tempered by the clear melancholy the album communicates.
Opening track “Costuras”, twinkles and twangs as stuttering drums compliment upbeat but forlorn basslines. Shouted choruses marry into the forceful vocals before winding quietly into the next number, “Comic Sans”. Driving bass duels expertly with distortion dusted finger tapping as the track grows huge before cutting out to silence. “Edwin y los amigos” comes in potently with the singing crackling into a scream at more than a few choice places. The exemplary guitar work, married with the typified trumpet section have never sounded as good as they do here.
“El final de una canción que no puedo reproducir” shines heavily in is drumming. Pulling heavily from 90s Midwest Emo drum dynamics, it swells into a beautiful blend of instrumentation and is dotted with more of those excellent choruses found throughout the album. “Gogeta Super Saiyan 4” offers a moody introduction riff, as it picks up the pace into a driving swirl of sound before breaking back down into quick knuckled finger tapping and bass work, closing out with call and response vocals announcing an epic passage of melodic catharsis. Closing track “Pro Evolution Soccer 6” brings together the spirit of the whole album, distilled back into frantic rhythms, immense vocals, and basement show pile ons.
A wonderful swirl of post-hardcore, midwest emo, and punk all make “Éramos felices y no lo sabíamos” as fun a listen as any. The bands blending of beloved emo genres and their various offshoots lends further credence to the genre being less locked by region and more a spirit to be found globally. We really dug the album and look forward to what Comic Sans has in store for us next.
Check out the release page on Bandcamp here: Comic Sans
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
03/13/23
Long.Way.Down
Photo Cred 📸: @thurstontakespictures
In a new conjunctive series with New Music Monday, from time to time we’ll be premiering some fantastic new music for you to listen to. This week we’ve teamed up with Zegema Beach Records to give you something deliciously heavy.
The absolute viciousness that is Long.Way.Down comes through immensely in their new single “"a:eulogy:in:essence", off of their brand new EP 'until there's nothing left...'. Since their last release, 2021’s split with Who Put Bella In The Witch Elm, the band has regrouped and pivoted with an even heavier, melodic twist on their previous sound. Intense bass lines with earth shattering drums wind and wheel with reckless abandon throughout with superbly shrieked, pit viper vocals complimenting an absolutely epic set of riffs . Emotional and undeniably heavy, while spewing catharsis, the track is an unrelenting and powerful four plus minutes of melodic destruction. In the bands own words:
"a:eulogy:in:essence" is the fourth track off of our upcoming EP, 'until there's nothing left...' Our aim with this song was to lean further into the sound of late 90's and early 2000's metalcore while still retaining elements of our screamo roots. It was inspired by the pummeling, yet melodic riffs and breakdowns of 7 Angels 7 Plagues and early Underoath, as well as the harsh vocal styles and melancholic clean sections of bands like Neil Perry and Love Lost But Not Forgotten.
'until there's nothing left...' releases March 13th through Zegema Beach Records on a beautiful set of swirled cassettes limited to 79 copies.
Listen for yourself below and check out the ZBR bandcamp for their other available single “until there's nothing left...”.
Check out the release page on Bandcamp here: Zegema Beach Records
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
03/06/23
So Concerned
Photo Cred 📸: @nowuintheloop
Some times on here I talk about screamo as a whole. Even though it contains many fascinating subcultures on its own, a unique geography of ideas, particular styles, and special unions outside of itself with other genres, in my eyes it is all one great structure under which many, many, many bands sit. The online blogosphere writers, TikTok web spelunkers are just a few amongst the numerous who often argue this way and that about what is and isn’t sheltered within these hallowed halls. However to me, the feeling, the sound, the influence and history are all crystalized into an idiosyncratic bismuth of what screamo is. With “A Handful of Recipes For Sorrow”, you can hear the architecture of our history, brought into a modern lens.
As soon as the first strums off “Destroy Power, Not People” hit my ears, I knew this album was going to be woven into the fabric of my week, possibly my year. As triumphant yet agony inducing as a track that could’ve fit on a Funeral Diner split back in the day. It begins to swell from quickening drums, guitar and bass to a masterful racket. “Splattered” opens with a moody chord progression, working itself up into a froth of wrist-splitting drum fills, with a melodic rock-to-and-fro riff creating a soft atmosphere for the harshly shrieked vocals to cut into with the repetitious He loves you sinking in further and further each time before the delicious spin of instruments fading out. I loved the melancholic instrumentation and punchy screams that kicked off “2006 Toyota Corolla (Remastered)”. Coupled with the lyrics this track almost takes on a surreal nature, crafting a story of a simple evening lending a hand to a vaguely familiar, if not a touch off-scented, face.
The sweet sweep pluck strum on “The Fine Art of Misandry” has amazing bass textures, while “I’d Like To Thank My Mother” has some of the crunchiest guitar I’ve heard in the genre in quite some time. ‘Compos Mentis” roars forth with heavy breathing and a cacophonous intro that wouldn’t sound amiss on an old Emo Annihilation comp. “Neutered, Spayed” leads with bass, which I’m always a huge fan of, as the rest of the band falls in for a huge, crushing riff swell. Truly, it's the outro that almost breaches metal territory, but reels back into the realms of You and I-esque tones and drumming and with a line like All my clothes smell like you the comparison feels even more apt.
The bouncy riffs on “Next Time U Come Around” work in concerted opposition with the themes of the track. Almost pleading, the vocals howling about how different things will be, once this ill-equipped anxiety leaves and there can be an actual sense of normalcy achieved. “Something You Don’t Know” has this tilted guitar line that is so melodically infectious it has been stuck in my head for a week. Within the song itself a feeling that's present throughout the album of misunderstanding and difficulty relating is given clearer language and space.
“That time me and Jared got a drumset and then went inside Dennys and both ordered grand slammwiches” achieves Algernon levels of comedic (and lengthy) song titling and in classical form, winds up being one of the more intense and pained tracks on the album. I went to the park where we met / rolled up another / and all the things I cannot fathom / come back to haunt me once again. The fact that So Concerned sound like they've been unearthed from the late 90s / early 00s is something I was honestly stunned by. Plenty of great contemporary bands take the pieces and make it new but rarely do you hear something that sounds like a classic era Screamo album but has the modern context clear and present.
The influences worn on "A Handful of Recipes For Sorrow" is both refreshing and deeply nostalgic for a skrampa like yours truly. The surreal, awkward and subtle neurodivergent themes of the album also resonated heavily, and it’s always wonderful to see there be new forms of vulnerability still being explored within the genre.
A Handful of Recipes For Sorrow will be available in physical copies through @self_versed_records on March 4th!
Check out their Bandcamp here: So Concerned
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
02/27/23
Crochet
Photo Cred 📸: @danielleriot
There’s something about a young band that’s just different. Toru Okada, Father Figure, Merchant Ships, youthful exuberance has long been the cauldron from which fantastic music has been brewed. A specific point of view is communicated and it’s one that is unabashed in its honesty, passion, and conviction. Crochet are that young band, and with “Birth Piece” they’re further cementing a time honored tradition in Screamo. The kids are going to be alright.
“Centennial” certainly sets the tone, its underlying thin-string plucked melody wanders in a haunting fashion before meeting a splash of symbols, with a spoken word piece telling a story that feels too close to home in its honesty. This narrative will be brought back a few times in the album. A feeling of longing and anticipation spoken through the anxieties that feel trapped between them. “Unsex Pledge” immediately greets you with a wall of pushing drums and panicked riffs, as concurrent vocals sprint and weave through chaotic instrumentation. Capturing this unnamable push and pull of wanting and feeling worthless, climaxing with the lyrics If I ever got the chance to tell you how I truly feel / nothing would change.
Warbling, noodley riffs compliment despondent bass lines, as chorale-d screams meet again. The beginning of ‘Watcher-Heretic” reminds me of a gentler Love Lost But Not Forgotten deep cut. Sweeping, post-rock reminiscent guitars, loudly play over background shouted vocals, like the last ravings of someone trapped under 6 feet of snow, the distance feels so terrifying. A tremulous bassline bleats, amongst a marched crawl of finger tapping and drumming, as the screamed vocals keep in lock step, building to a crescendoed lamentation of I won't reduce myself to begging / but I don't have the strength to tell you how much I love you / (we won't return to where we once were / I won't come home.) before abruptly cutting out. “Gibusong” oddly enough beginning with a giggle kicks into a malicious almost danceable composition, while still keeping the sonic nature of the album at its core, its bounding midsection has a thumping bassline like feet on hot coals, leading into elongated strums and slides decorate the shrill cries of I don't know if I'm talking to myself when I ask where you've been.
“Ancient Roman Candle” both further showcases the young band's talent for crafting emotionally dense and massive arrangements. The longest track on the album is easily the most intense, slowly winding its way through a solo guitar riff, while random news broadcasts rattle off bits and bobs of information until the rest of the instruments seem to come alive and join it. Suddenly everything screams to life as the guitars sweep up and the drum widens its swing to connect with intensively shrieking vocals agonizing over a lost friend. Closing track “Friends Who Sit And Breathe” almost upends the tone of the album entirely, it becomes evil, dissonant, heavy, gnashing and violent. A last showing of everything the album has built to, this exultation is tethered to a frantically howling saxophone, before sinking into noise and then utter silence.
I have been waiting for this one. Crochet have been performing just shy of a year, and up until this past Friday, we’ve only had (excellent) live videos to go off. Now with “Birth Piece” everything they’ve been honing the last 11 odd months are distilled into a fantastic debut album. Las Vegas has really been offering us great things, and with Crochet, I can only be even more excited about what may come next. We look forward to what they have in store for us next.
Check out their Bandcamp here: Crochet
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
02/20/23
Party Hats
Photo Cred 📸: @stevenruud
When Party Hats dropped their debut album “Fatima” they completed a course that had been mapped in the shape of their early demos. The textured guitarwork, al dente noodling and breathy-till-frenetic drumming all spoke volumes of their journey as both people and as a band. Its what has also made their newest EP, “autobiographic autopsy”, enthralling in so many ways. Such a thoughtful pensiveness wraps every melody on this EP that it's hard to not feel this pang of nostalgia and loss rippling through its gone-but-all-too-soon run time of 15 minutes.
Opening track “New Tricks Off The Table”, feels traditional in their sense of things, but there's a newer edge to everything, the bounding of fingers maneuvering fretwork, the crispness of the crashing kit and the relentless nature of the vocals that seem to lumber and sprint at intervals. It feels fully figured then seems to uneasily shift into a slowed and unnerving outro. The title track for the EP opens with a lick that wouldn’t feel unfamiliar around a campfire jam session born witness by an open range and an impossible night sky before the song launches full into a stop-start tackling of shredded vocals, languishing across staccato drumming and looping finger taps.
My favorite off the EP, “My Big Fucking Head”, feels iconically midwest in its build and like any cheekily named track, it drips this crippling loop of mistakes in ones mind with a fantastically catchy last half that is as enjoyable as it is cutting. Lyrics painting an all too familiar picture of watching it all just so simply and easily slip through your fingers, I replay it / Over and over again / I replay it / Over and over again. Segueing into “Belly Up”, there isn’t much pause given. The song explodes and features some truly incredible performances all within the first 30 seconds.
As the track slows its pace the elongated screams and spaced riffs simply pick back up again, a constant parade of push and pull, the drums feel as if they’re floating straight through you. As the song ramps the shrieks become even more intense before meeting an almost heavenly choral background, further vaulting the intensity before cutting away to an abrupt end.
With closing track “Fish Hook”, there’s a moment where the screaming almost sounds like early #12 and it’s exceptional. Easily the most ferocious of the EP, the seesaw kick between guitar and drums, alleviate these immense screams to the front, before a cooled down middle section lights up a clumsily thumbed baby grand getting its footing, sounding like if a young Bill Evans was exclusively listening to Burial. As the guitar kicks back in, the drumming runs to meet it and the howls unleash at their most heightened laments, before angularly closing out on us.
It would be easy to draw the line that connects Party Hats back to bands other exceptional Denton bands like Two Knights or Father Figure, but it's also become quite obvious that they are so much more than a simple heir apparent. If “Fatima” was us getting to watch ball connect bat and begin its ascent, then “autobiographic autopsy” is certainly our view as it rockets through the sky and reaches clouds unknown. We loved this EP and we can’t wait to get our hands on the physical release.
“Autobiographic Autopsy” will be released on cassette through Self Versed Records and available on all streaming services February 14th.
Check out their Bandcamp here: Party Hats
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
02/13/23
Módulo Lunar
Photo Cred 📸: @mattheusantonelli
What a feeling it is, to hear something that seems to wrap it’s grip tightly in your chest. The coiling firmness of something expansive unfolding, it seems to wrap around you and swallow everything else up. That kind of intensity emanates from each track on “Equinócio”, the most recent EP from Brazilian post-hardcore outfit Módulo Lunar. Pulling equal parts from 90s indie emo and contemporary post-hardcore, the trio’s latest release is one of melodic richness, punctuated with stark, seize-in-your-chest emotional honesty.
“Último Dia De Verão” (The Last Day of Summer) rings with the finality of its title, slowly ramping from a somber yet heavy Dinosaur Jr. meets Unwound opening segment, wailing riffs and cuss-laden drumming accompanying the aching march of spoken word, before erupting into a roared shout as the track picks up at a clip and melds into a beautiful swirl of instrumentation, before cutting sharply into an angular rhythmic outro.
As we begin “Vinte Vinte” (Twenty Twenty), a soaring and warbling riff is warped and wound around crisp yet dense bass lines as the saccharine splash of cymbals splinters amongst sparsely written but passionately roared lyrics. A track that seems to earnestly be asking for survival, a simple wish to exist opined through the repeated lines and at the moment / wanted to live with minimal outlay / save on gestures / in the words / in thoughts / float.
The third and final track “Movimento Perpétuo” (Perpetual Motion), with its looping guitar lines and drumming synchronicities seems to leave and come back, with shuddering melodies and haunting riffs. The song itself sounds like a trap, an endless loop that can’t be navigated, as scaling fretwork and drums collide against melancholic bass to circle and circle as they slowly fade out to silence.
Módulo Lunar are a recent discovery for me and certainly a pleasant surprise. Their sparse but punchy lyricism rings especially hard in an era saturated by heavy handed captioning and 3 minute infotainment. Their exasperation and sort of surrender to the times is one that can easily be sympathized with, and certainly felt throughout this EP. We thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to what the band has in store for us next.
Check out their Bandcamp here: Módulo Lunar
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
02/06/23
Opposable
Photo Cred 📸: @o.shoots
Opposable hails from Boston, a city notorious for its Hardcore and Punk scenes. However, the band cuts its own unique niche of riff laden music with queer-as-in-fuck-you energy and sentiment. On their debut self-titled EP they cover decades of sounds while exhibiting a fresh and very exciting set of songs.
To kick off something right, opener “Rust” layers multitudes of genres into a heavy rollicking groove, laden with melodies and chugs while never leaning into a distinct sound. Reminiscent of Cloudmouth, throaty shouts and winding guitars collide with plinked chords and melodramatic bass complimented by heavy as fuck drumming.
“Worn Down” pairs gritty tones with thumping open drumming to meet in an absolute vortex of critical mass shredding. Dealing with themes of being crushed by an oppressive environment of non-acceptance, the track acts as a clarion call for those in marginalized communities with lines like Savor the safety of coded languages / be yet your soft self / and learn then / all is naught / all is naught / awe in the eyes of the damned witnessing the bleakness of the bigoted landscape before them.
Closing song “Croak Dream” blurs the lines between downtuned sludge and uptempo punk, a maelstrom of slowed down drumming and mid-paced chugging to ask the ever present question of searching for a solid meaning / tell me where it fucking hurts you.
For their first EP, Opposable have certainly made a full sound for themselves, not an out of place note seemed to exist on this whole EP, adeptly mixing heavy as shit with the powerfully defiant. Coming in at roughly around 7 minutes, this first offering was more than impressive and we’re very excited to hear more of this from the Bostonian trio.
Check out their Bandcamp here: Opposable
Writer : @letsgetpivotal
Editor : @just_reidz
01/30/23
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