ISIS
Live VI 11.16.07
Self-released
ISIS may have closed up shop back in June of 2010, but that doesn’t mean they still don’t have plenty of material to still be released. Live VI 11.16.07 is the newest installment in their live series and it is culled from recordings during the band’s “Shades of the Swarm” 10th anniversary tour in 2007. More specifically, the band’s show at the Hawthorne Theater in Portland, OR.
On this recording the band runs through a careful selection of songs from each of their albums and they sound precise and on-point. A feat that a lot of bands are unable to achieve when they start getting long in the tooth. Right out of the gate, the band tears into the cacophony and truly post-metal hardcore noise that is “Hive Destruction” off their Mosquito Control EP. We then jump ahead a few albums into “So Did We” (Panopticon) and “Not In Rivers, But In Drops” (In The Absence of Truth), as the band slows down their pace and delve deep into their more melodic and nuanced sound.
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The Sidekicks
Awkward Breeds
Red Scare/Really Records
For as many good song writers as there are floating around these days, there’s one aspect of music that I often find sorely lacking in newer records. Joy. I don’t mean happy lyrics necessarily, but just a sense of joy in the energy of a record. A sense that even when a band is singing about something sad the music feels like it’s performed with a smile. The latest from The Sidekicks is a simply joyful sounding record. And it’s a great one at that.
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Why are TOOL touring? That is the biggest question being raised by a lot of fans and critics. Don’t get me wrong. Any time a band tours and brings their music to fans… especially to such “out of the way” locales like South Florida – and Florida completely for that matter – it is always a reason to rejoice. Especially if they’re your favorite band. What is curious is for a band of TOOL‘s size to tour without an album to promote. In TOOL’s case they have not released any new material since 2006’s 10,000 Days. Sure, they’ve been hinting in their cryptic and mysterious ways that they have been in the studio for the past two years or so, but no solid updates of a new album coming out in the near future.
So they’re touring for the hell of it then. Let’s chalk it up to that. But rumor has it on the nether regions of the internet and message boards that TOOL are calling it quits and this is a “farewell” tour of sorts. It could make sense. And from the band’s previous history of doing everything on their own terms, this could make sense. But that’s just rabid TOOL conspiracy theory going into overdrive.
So let’s get to the band’s stops in Florida. A rarity unto themselves as the band has not made their way to the Sunshine State in about five years.
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Signals Midwest
Latitudes and Longitudes
Tiny Engines Records
Energetic hooks and life affirming lyrics never go out of style – and there are plenty of both to be heard on Cleveland four-piece Signals Midwest’s second LP, Latitudes And Longitudes. The band plays a mature blend of post-hardcore and pop-punk that manages to feel both familiar and refreshing by finding new ways to recombine elements of well worn source material, and creating something really special in the process. The vocal delivery here is strongly reminiscent of Small Brown Bike, the guitars borrow from the Latterman school of angular riffage, and the overall package sounds like The Casket Lottery playing Hot Water Music covers after ten pots of coffee. There is a subtle complexity to this LP that takes a few listens to dig into and fully appreciate, but given a chance to sink in it reveals itself to be an expertly crafted punk record played with an unassuming purity of creative intent.
No Trigger
Tycoon
No Sleep Records
In 2006 No Trigger burst onto the punk scene with their debut full length Cayoneer. After a slew of extremely positive reviews for their fast-paced melodic hardcore stylings and a handful of international tours, No Trigger essentially up and disappeared. Fast-forward through five years of inactivity to find the band releasing their first 7” since Cayoneer, Be Honest. After alluding to even more new material, a second full length, Tycoon, has finally has finally been released by No Sleep Records. Despite the wait, Tycoon sounds like an immediate follow up Canyoneer.
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Harassor
Harassor
Universal Consciousness
There is something truly unique when a band is able to effortless mix metal styles like Doom, Black, Groove, and even Grind into a hybrid so horrific that you can’t peel yourself away from the speakers. This is so much the case with Harassor. With a mish-mash sound of all things metal, the band sounds like Lucifer’s lounge band that has been relegated to record in the deepest and darkest dungeon Hell can provide. Harassor’s self-titled album is all low-fi recording surely paying homage to the nascent days of Norwegian Black Metal and all brutality on its sound. There is no gloss-sheeny shiny production here. No need for it whatsoever. This is all metal at its ugliest and harshest and dirtiest. The way it should be.
Harassor are effortless in their approach of doing it now and in the moment. You can hear the drummer counting down to start and the band just delving into a descent of metal madness. Vocalist Pete Majors brings in a guttural roar that is from the deepest bowels of somewhere…not going to say Hell as that would be all too clichéd at this point. But you get the idea. Majors’ voice acts more as the low-end for the rest of the band while still roaring over the driving guitars and blast beats of the drums. And it still all comes across as sludgy and doom as possible.
The only pitfall is that lack of bottom-end that could be assisted by plodding bass guitars. But in the end Harassor’s vocals-guitar-drums approach works because of how they sound. Harassor are not afraid to take all they know about Black, Doom, Grind, and Death Metal and force it down your throat. They won’t care if you like it. They’d probably prefer that you’re terrified of them after listening to the record. And you very well could be. And like it!
The Future Now
The Future Now 7″
Sound Study Recordings & Kiss Of Death Records
Once again Sound Study Recordings and Kiss Of Death Records have unearthed a gem from the underbelly of Gainesville, Florida; this time by the name of The Future Now. The two labels have collaborated on a two-song 7” to follow up the band’s debut LP Hazy Orange Sunday. The Future Now clearly aren’t ashamed of their early 1990’s grunge influence, because you’d be hard pressed to find any part of this EP without a nod to Nevermind, Dinosaur Jr. or even The Melvins. 20 years ago these two songs would have dominated the radio.
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Pianos Become The Teeth
The Lack Long After
Top Shelf Records
Content to not fix what isn’t broken, Pianos Become The Teeth have made only subtle refinements to their sound on their second LP, The Lack Long After. The stylistic hallmarks that defined the band’s debut LP Old Pride–layered guitars, soaring crescendos and anguished vocals–are all once again in place here, but with a greater level of polish than before. The Baltimore-based five-piece blends 90’s screamo with post-rock influences, dialing back the distortion on their guitars and deriving their heaviness from tense songwriting rather than relying on blunt aggression. Picture a more condensed version of Envy, and you have a rudimentary idea of what to expect.
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Holy Fever
Holy Fever EP
Lifeline Records
Imagine if you will, a world where Ian MacKaye had started The (International) Noise Conspiracy instead of Dennis Lyxzén. Same style of boisterous, in your-face, politically charged garage punk. Maybe, just maybe, would you get an idea then what Holy Fever are all about. It’d be easy to list out all the hardcore bands the members are and have been in and then go into some diatribe about they were all influenced and go on and on, but if you step away from all the music critic dissection and analyzation, you will find a hard-rocking outfit with an underlying pop sensibility.
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Jack’s Mannequin
People And Things
Sire Records
Fans of Andrew McMahon have been able to watch the singer-song writer grow in a way that few other acts have. Something Corporate’s Audioboxer EP was released when McMahon was just 19; since then, McMahon has been the primary creative force behind two Something Corporate records and three full lengths and an EP from Jack’s Mannequin. While anyone can see the drastic maturation between Something Corporate’s 2002 album Leaving Through The Window and Jack’s Mannequin’s most recent effort People And Things, there has never been a drastic turning point at which McMahon consciously decided to reinvent himself (think Tom DeLonge making the jump from Blink-182 to Angels & Airwaves). Although McMahon’s battle with leukemia undeniably influenced a change in the band’s sound between Everything In Transit and The Glass Passenger, McMahon’s growth – particularly within the realm of Jack’s Mannequin – has been outstandingly organic. People And Things captures the next phase in this evolution, and does so wonderfully.
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