Us, Haunted Bodies - s/t - 7

Labels: Communique
Review by: Oli Saunders

These guys are ex and current members of Loma Prieta and Occam’s Razor! And guess what? They are really fucking good! Some people on Collective seem to always complain about the lack of this kind of screamo about at the moment whenever the genre is discussed – well I think this band should make you slightly happier for the time being. Here’s the deal…

Four chaotic screamo songs on a one sided 7” which plays at 45 rpm and attempts to rip your face off. This is pretty much flat out from start to finish, except in a few places where things slow down slightly. But the raging screams are still there even in those parts. The sound is in between Loma Prieta and Occam’s Razor – the songs are quite straightforward, a bit like Loma Prieta but quicker, whilst being much simpler than Occam’s Razor. Actually, the Occam’s Razor comparison is probably not that strong to be honest and there’s probably better comparisons that I can’t think of.

The other thing is that yes all of the songs are really short! The whole thing is over in just over four minutes. Which is my only minor complaint about the record. I guess it’s because they do end up sounding quite similar to each other, so maybe it’s a good thing. If you’ve heard this type of thing before then it probably won’t blow you away but I think it’s a solid release that people into the genre should certainly check out.

My favourite song is probably the third track ‘The Unreported Resistance’, in which the drums go into overdrive halfway through. Awesome!

They split up at towards the end of 2006 but reformed halfway through 2007. I look forward to future releases and tours.

By the way, this is my second review and I didn’t mean to cover another release from Communique. It just happened as I got the record today and liked it so much. The label’s other releases have a bit hit and miss for me but this is definitely a hit! The 7” is limited to 100 so get it quick if you want it on vinyl. It’s got really nice cardboard packaging too! Otherwise it should be coming out as a 3” CDr soon.

2nd April 2008