Sometimes it seems like the whole screamo genre is detached from the DIY / hardcore roots, where the records come out in really fancy packaging and they have been produced to the nth degree so that all the impulsive and explosive passion that I want to feel from this kind of music is drained out.
This record to me seems to rally against that approach. The packaging is very messily screen printed in an endearing way, with little cut outs on it, and a massive zine to read inside. Now, I haven’t had a chance to check the zine out properly yet but it’s a neat idea, and something that helps make a record feel more like a labour of love than a piece of plastic coming straight off the production line.
Musically I am only really into one side of this record, but anyway. Eye of Verotika have a dorky name but their music is much better. They are dealing in that kind of late 90’s screamy emo style, all about the harsh screamed vocals and dark and melodic guitar parts. Closure, Portrait, Saetia etc… these are all bands that EoV follow in the footsteps of, playing four tracks that are really rather great. The song structures are no massive departure from the standards of the style, on the second song they fall away into a lengthy quieter part that works really well, I love the brooding guitar sound they have. The rough recording sounds live and I always enjoy that – you hear the music like how you’re supposed to, not filtered out and re-created for the ‘optimum’ performance. The third song has lots of build ups and breakdowns to quiet bits where they cry their eyes out over minimal instrumentation, before it crashes back out into chunky grooves. Sure, it’s all blatantly cliche but I still love this sort of thing to bits when it is done well. The final track is a slow burning instrumental.
Caught in the Fall is much less my cuppa. They are more straight forward, playing harsh, throat mashed screamo, again with a totally raw production that perhaps doesn’t help me in this particular case. It’s not really melodic enough to capture my attention, sounding a bit like some of the bands that came along when Witching Hour put out records but weren’t really good enough to be on Witching Hour. They do some nice twinkly bits now and again which I appreciated, the vocals are much more up my street at this point on the first track, with them doing desperate emo crying rather than the full on bellow they employ the rest of the time. Anyways, this isn’t too bad overall, I am not forced to turn it off or anything and can quite easily listen all the way through. I guess I just wouldn’t choose to do that very often.