I'm sure there are a lot of kids out there who refuse to move on and listen to the bands that have formed from the ashes of one of the greatest hardcore bands in history, but that's to their loss and my credit. Minus the Bear isn't bad, Roy is okay for me, but These Arms Are Snakes, well, they simply destroy. Oxeneers or The Lion Sleeps When the Antelopes Go Home, the debut full-length from These Arms Are Snakes was one of my favorite records of 2004. It played a brand of caustic post-hardcore that was as catchy as it was dissonant. Oxeneers perfectly balanced groove sensibility with cascading guitar riffs, along with the urgent scraping vocals of Steve Snere. What wasn't there to love? Now with their newest release, Easter, These Arms Are Snakes have returned with a dark, dense, and abrasive sophomore album. The album begins with "Mescaline Eyes" - best song title for 2006 I might add - which begins with the Snakes biggest and sickest riff to date. The song plays like the title suggests, a distorted vision of a rock landscape where the guitar riffs snake their way, methodically strangling vocalist Snere, evoking his … Read more
Easter, the second and highly anticipated full-length from These Arms Are Snakes, is finally upon us. But just how anticipated … Read more
The Blood Brothers are one of those bands that can get you into shit with people. Not that anyone should … Read more
Have The Mars Volta finally become predictable? Were they already? Are they still churning out jaw-droppingly unexpected music? Did they … Read more
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These guys were incredibly hyped a little over a year ago when they had their demo out. However, then they were known as The Heist and their 7" was about to come out on Dead By 23 Records. Then they had to change their name, their record was delayed, and everything seemed to sort of die down for them. When the 7" finally came out, it was good, but you could tell they were capable of creating more, and Still Sick proves just that. When I first heard a few of the mp3s before the record came out I knew this was going to be leagues ahead of the 7". The song structures are much more complete, and less sloppy. Even the two or three songs that they re-did for … Read more
Phillip Roebuck will never be explained in writing. Writing does no justice to what Phillip Roebuck does. He plays a banjo at breakneck speed. He is a one-man band that bashes away at a bass drum and tambourine on his back. See, it just doesn't sound right, does it? It conjures images of Groundskeeper Willy yelling, "I'm a maniac, MANIAC!" … Read more
Of all of the promos in the pile in the corner of my room, Weapons are Useless has been languishing there the longest, festering silently, crying out to be reviewed. From time to time I would pop the disk into my laptop, in a vain attempt to make something of what Your Eyes My Dreams had dumped upon me. It … Read more
A lot of bands get labeled as "angry" or "pissed off" as a result of their lyrical content, and I'm sure you could apply those same adjectives to Know the Score. However, I feel that doing so would be doing a great disservice to them, not to mention those descriptions are rather played out. I feel a better way to … Read more
It seems strange that a band like Eyes Averted would end up having to self-release their debut album. Before Paralyzing Passion and Motion was completed, the band was abruptly dropped from their label. Why would this happen? What acceptable excuse could there possibly be? The technical, almost progressive, hardcore style the band embraces has reached a level of popularity that … Read more
As tragic as it was, the death of founding member and guitarist Dennis "Piggy" D'Amour in 2005 was not the death of Voivod. The final nail in the coffin was hammered with the departure of Jean-Yves "Blacky" Thériault fifteen years ago. Although songwriting and arrangements were always credited to the band as a whole, the void left in the overall … Read more
In this day and age, it seems to take way more effort than it should to get a new band's name out there. There are so many ways people can check out a new band, not to mention it's so much easier than it has been in the past. It used to be that you had to release a song … Read more
It seems that in the current day and age the process of starting a hardcore band has become an act of great ease as compared to, oh let's say, five years ago. Listen close to the first ten Revelation releases, rip off the riffs and place them just right, (don't forget your dive-bombs!) grab all your friends together to record … Read more
Oh the joys of a local band starting to make it big! I've been a friend of two members of Jefferson Third since I was a freshman in high school. It was only a matter of time before the two of them started a band. And when one of them was randomly assigned a college roommate and they started jamming … Read more
So, my brother calls me out of the blue one day and excitedly explains to me that he has discovered the most "amazing" singer-songwriter that he has heard in ages. I was skeptical, as he usually likes the absolute worst music imaginable within the punk, hardcore, and indie genres. Thus I returned his enthusiasm for this newfound artist, Micah P. … Read more
Scream, sing, scream, sing, scream, and sing. This simple recipe, which was discovered and completely exploited these past few years, has created a plethora of bands that for the most part are really really bad. Thankfully, there seems to be a lessening of this herd and some fine gleaning has thinned the crop to what we are supposed to believe … Read more
I was relieved to find out that Black SS stands for Black Sheep Squadron, and not some Nazi organization, upon receiving this record. The cover art for one side of the split featured a fearsome black widow spider, so for all I knew, I was about to hear some intense hate anthems. Instead, what I got was some intense hardcore … Read more
There are a lot of hardcore bands out there who claim to be old-school, but the truth of the matter is that an insane amount of metal has infiltrated the scene. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it sure does make it harder to find a speedy, non-metallic, non-chugga-chugga hardcore band when you're in the mood for it. You … Read more
To me, Hatebreed mark the pinnacle, as well as the end of an era for Victory Records. Satisfaction is the Death of Desire was the epitome of mid-90's hardcore: mosh heavy, distrusting, and pissed. Since then, Hatebreed as well as Victory Records have not necessarily become less credible (Victory had none anyways), but definitely watered down and weaker than their … Read more
Set it Straight is a band that truly deserves notoriety. Unfortunately, they really haven't gotten much attention outside of the Westcoast, which is both a shock and a shame. Last year the band released their debut full-length, My Favorite Words, an extremely promising LP, as well as a split EP with the now defunct Where Eagles Dare. On both of … Read more
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