Labels: Kordova Milk Bar
Review by: Andy Malcolm
This is an interesting little release. Screamo Diaries I perhaps? Anyway, it’s an “all-star” lineup of shouty / screamy / chaotic bands, some of it good, some of it bad. More than anything, it shows that this style is already in danger of being done to death. So here:
- Aché – Metal with screamy & gruff vocals. Very bad demo quality sound. Pretty crappy.
- Five Stars For Failure – now these guys have something, melodic hardcore emo, mid 90′ style, with cool frantic vocals – the singer kind of clips the words. This is one of my favourite styles of music. Favourable comparisons to Spirit Assembly and Yaphet Kotto can be made. Features clichéd moody emo-instrumental part, but that’s more reassuring than anything. This song is not on the 7″, which is very much worth picking up.
- Joshua Fit For Battle – regulation emo violence / thrash. 25 seconds of metally stuff. I’ve heard worse
- Knives And Greenwater – alas, a track from their split with Racebannon, as I was hoping it’d be an unreleased one. Spooky black-metal influenced screamo, with tinkly piano intro that breaks into the crushing music. Heavy, technical and classy, totally suited to Witching Hour. These guys were on the right track, now members are in “I Am The Resurrection” with guys from the State Secedes. Should be shit hot.
- Landed – 15 minutes of ambience / noise / industrial shite. Waste of fucking space. If this wasn’t on here, this comp could have been on vinyl. Which it should have been. Fuck this.
- Lycosa – starts off as hectic and punishing emo-violence, but has too much metal for my taste. Not sure about this one. They have 2 songs, and the second is more of the same. Great when fast, shitty when slow. The garbled vocals make me laugh at times.
- Numbers are Neutral – dodgy recording lets this one down (probably live), but it sounds like interesting melodic screamo in the style of Saetia and Portrait. Vocals are totally down in the sound the drums are up, and you can’t really get a good idea as to what they are doing. The twinkle break with spoken word is something special though. I would like to hear what these can do with a real recording, as I think it’d be real good.
- Off Minor – ex Saetia dudes. Doing a UOA cover it says here! Another pathetic recording, very quiet. Strained vocals and grooving rhythmic hardcore. It doesn’t sound too different to the original.
- Neil Perry – emo violence meisters who churn out the crunch. They can sound a bit like Honeywell condensed into 1 minute of rage, though with more metal tendencies. These guys have better stuff, check out the debut 7″, and the split 12″ with A Satellite Crash
- Page 99 – this track rages, though I wasn’t so impressed with the LP. brutal hardcore that clings to melody and has vocals reminiscent of a guy being sick. Superb melodic ending with sung vocals to end this song too. Good stuff
- Racebannon – the scariest screamo band around. Killer samples, spooked out vocals, dark music. I think this may even be a previously unreleased song. Mix Swing Kids with a touch of Rye Coalition, and a whole host of weird shit, if you will. Then get their LP if you don’t got it already
- the Assistant – ex- You and I (as are Neil Perry). They’re a good band, but I find these guys easier to take in small doses. This track is 6 minutes long. Hyper-technical emo-metal. Moves from extremely fast and crazy to melodic and catchy. Has screamed vocals and a girl singer for the melodies. This track has some absolutely amazing moments, but tends to drag on too long in the end. Try listening to these guys album if you’ve got the stamina, cos it’ll wear you out, but you’ll be damn impressed too. (this song is on the album)
- the Awakened – eerie electronic intro. bad recording. fast metal hardcore with dual vocals. doesn’t do a thing for me. Too long: 3 ½ minutes! Army of Flying Robots are way better than this.
- Cable Car Theory – these dudes rock, and sound totally like Planes Mistaken For Stars. Fast, rock influenced hardcore with strained vocals and melodic choruses. Also similar to HWM, but more emo. Excellent rock music.
- Keyboard Masters – weird shit. Someone fucking round with synths and noises and all kinds of stuff. Freaky. Only a minute long too.
- the Scarlet Letter – uh, pop punk? I can’t quite figure out why this on here, it’s very fast and kinda ok. 1 minute long.
- the Vida Blue – groovin’ emo with screamy vocals. keep an eye out for all their forth coming releases. Pretty original stuff with an old school influence, and hard to figure out a comparison. Cool!
- Thursday – really awesome emo rock! Quite out of place with the rest of the stuff on here, but this is great. They utilise violin, have strong vocals, and chunky repetetive riffing on the loud parts in the vein of Texas Is The Reason. Does the quiet – loud thing better the 99% of all other emo rock bands. Similar to Sunfactor, except a little more odd ball in places.
- To Dream of Autumn – very quiet recording. Speedy screamo with standard twinkle part that the guy yells over. French bands are better at this than TDoA.
- Usurp Synapse – typical Usurp song. Pounding emo violence with a hefty groove. Even the occasional more melodic moment. They have better stuff, but this would give you an idea as to how they sound if you had somehow never heard them before.
So. Decent comp as it turns out. Just should have ditched that 15 minute song and released it on vinyl, as then the songs that had shitty recordings wouldn’t have sounded quite so bad. Well, it probably won’t be too long till the main style on here is all played out, this is a reasonable document of how it stood in the year 2000. Oh and it comes with a neat booklet in a cloth cover. Heh.