Labels: Lovitt
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Nggggggggg. Like I wasn’t going to like this album of intense screamo hardcore. You gotta be kidding.
You know, I’m buying far too many records these days where I don’t know a thing about the band, so I can’t wibble on for a paragraph about who they are, or what they used to do, or how the drummer likes edam cheese or anything. But I did find out that 400 have changed bassists since this album and the new member used to be in Policy of 3 (woah!) but that’s all I can offer. Stylistically, it’s sometimes along those same jagged lines as Yaphet Kotto, punching you repeatedly to the head one minute, then helping you up again and making things alright the next. Though there’s defintely a lot more of the jangly emo in 400 than there is in Yaphet, but Yaphet is the best band I’ve heard this year, so I shouldn’t even compare.
There’s 11 songs on here, squeezed into 28 minutes, and they certainly start off in the way they mean to continue. Lulling the listener into a false sense of security with the light beginning to “Power of Speech” it doesn’t take long to before they breeak into the louder and screamier aspects of the band. And after 90 seconds they’re already playing the 2nd song. Hang on a minute! I haven’t fully taken that first song in yet. And the second song blasts a long in a fast yet melodic fashion, before tumbling into a sweet spoken section where you bliss out, shut your eyes and nod a long. Then they’re shouting again and the music is rhythmical and rumbling. And I’ve accidentally summed up the whole album there. Because Four Hundred Years display that rare ability to rattle your head with agression, and then calm you down with the purity of their slower parts. Screamo it may mainly appear to be, but there is something to be said for a band that doesn’t incessantly bludgeon your brains out. Almost as an after thought they include the final untitled instrumental track which is incredibly pretty, and other songs like “Radio Silence” open up like the most pleasant of indie emo bands, jangling and lulling one into a false sense of security before, suddenly, someone flicks a switch and the dual vocalists are trading shouts and screams. I know I mention Twelve Hour Turn too much for a band that hasn’t even released a full length of it’s own, but for me they define this sound. And Four Hundred Years aren’t that far behind so once more I’ll roll out the comparison.
Well, what more could you want from an emo band? 400 have it all – they yell, they assault, they embrace – thereby providing an outlet for your anger, and your need for comfort within the same 28 minutes. A band that knows.