Labels: Schematics
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Florida Fucking Hardcore. Is what it says on the cover. And this is a mighty fine introduction to any number of bands from Florida that may not have had the pleasure of hearing. I think a good number of songs here are previously released, but anyways. Ready to roll…
- Reversal of Man – the band that should make most hardcore bands decided to disband. why are other hc groups still churning out the same old mush when there are bands like the ‘man? scary, breathless vocals, manic instrumentation, crushing
- Tomorrow – hot water music + texas is the reason, which is not a totally bad thing. a bona fide emotional rock song. i much prefer this to the whine rock of the majority of todays emo groups. gruff vocals and backups. only 7 exclamation marks in this tomorrow song
- Assuck – the most appropriately named band ever. they are both ass, and they suck
- Strikeforce Diablo – a comparitively weak song from these guys who had some great stuff. scratchy, slightly heavy emo hardcore, like a slower small brown bike
- Hot Water Music – “where we belong”. you have this already
- Combatwoundedveteran – “and prior to that i was a door to door salesman, selling entrails and spare parts for housewives”. god knows if i have this song already, i can’t tell. actually, this is relatively sane material from the vet, but that’s not really saying too much. this band are destroying hardcore as we know it. and we should be thankful to them
- Cavity – heavy assed, slow and sludgey, i almost bought a record by these guys once but chickened out. drags itself a long, and squashes you. this is how rock music is supposed to sound
- Omega Man – metal with harsh vocals. very fast. that stupid drum sound. shit, skip this one
- nineteenhundredandtwelve – EMOEMOEMO. screamo. melodic repetetive guitar and cool drumming, whilst a guy speaks very fast and he sounds like he is going to cry. some awesome screams too. still life influenced. this is fucking cool, fail to clasp your hands together and rock back and forth and i cast ye out
- Early Grace – begins slowly and with screamed vocals. a more torturous reversal of man? a little too slow for me at the start, but builds up very nicely. not bad at all. has emo influences! which are more obvious when it goes into a very off-key sung part. hmm. intriguing to say the least!
- Discount – here’s “history is history” just in case you haven’t got the 7″ that it’s from
- Dragbody – fast and screamy, slow parts, bit of metal, have got to have listened to a few reversal of man records. hey, this is pretty good. vocals are awesome
- Twelve Hour Turn – this one came as a surprise, it’s an earlier version of album track “little one”, and uh, perhaps if combatwoundedveteran covered 12ht and let the original vocalists do their parts? it sounds NOTHING like the album version, they both have beautiful intros, but they differ, and this one hurtles into a million mile per hour hardcore track with dual screaming and chaos flying all around. weird!
- Cease – has a very slow and meandering, minimal intro, but turns into boring metal
- Hankshaw – the band with a boy singer who sounds like a girl! awesome indie pop punk, who by rights should be at least as big as the get up kids. they are at least as good
- Bird of Ill Omen – gruff heavy hardcore that has a similar guitar sound to strikeforce diablo. fine, but nothing special, and has an annoying metal part which made me just skip the song
- I Hate Myself – i hate myself kill me. they are so amazing. the song is called “caught in a flood with the captain of the cheerleader squad”, they have lyrics like “maybe you’d look at me, you’d talk to me, we could marry. live in this tree. but it’s unlikley. you don’t like me, and i don’t like me, and it’s unlikely“. strained vocals over slow & depressing, pretty music that makes me want to hug people, later breaks into chaotic emo screamo that knocks you senseless. a criminally under-rated band that shows how emo rock should be done, emphasing the emo rather than the rock. jah?
- Scrotum Grinder – fast hardcore in the vein of the swarm. this is solid, but it ain’t the swarm
- Jud Jud – remember that episode of the simpsons where homer suggests they call the band the b-sharps? it’s funny at first, but each time you here it gets less so? this applies to jud jud. who is buying this shit? or do no idea still have box-loads of the stuff in their warehouse?
So, um, varied comp – you’ll probably like a bunch of the bands on here and hate the others. Worth checking out, cool packaging too, it’s done like a 10″ record, but folds out and the cd sits in a little pouch.