Labels: Heroine Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Ah, good ole Mara’Akate. A band that I have progressively more enjoyed as they went on. Redwood 7″? Generic 1999 screamo. Split 6″ with Racebannon? Still reasonably generic screamo but actually pretty good. One sided 12″? Noisy Racebannon meets Jehu arty hardcore schlock that is bloody good. 6 songs of booty shaking, quirky hardcore that hops about from foot to foot like a hopscotch playing kid who just has his trainers set on fire by the school bully. Diet Usurp is probably my favourite of the tracks present, there is a really hard to describe part where the guitars squelch quite gloriously and it hits the groove, and also features a right smart emo part which was a bit unexpected from a band that otherwise has a less than straight forward style. The vocals are urgent and yelled, though not in the rather disturbing manner of the Racebannon vocalist. Other points of note? “Shotgun, not Window” features some glass getting broken, and there is a track called “Wolfenstein 3D”, veteran PC gamers nerds in the house it seems. There was like a robotic Hitler in that game or something? I only ever played the first level.
This record is tight and sloppy at the same time – good combo, and well worth checking out, particularly to hear how far this band have come since “back in the day”. Word.
(vinyl version: Alone)