Labels: Utarid
Review by: Oli Saunders
DIY emoviolence, one of life’s little joys. Zainichi bring the skramz from Singapore and do it a manner reasonably similar to their Malaysian neighbours, so that’s your first point of reference. One thing that strikes me though is the pace of the music. It’s a lot more patient than pretty much all the South Asia stuff that’s about, the song lengths are all around four or five minutes. The band are happy to play twinkly guitar bits in amongst the chaos and cry for a while, which I am perfectly happy with.
Two people perform vocals, one guy pretty much only screaming whilst the other mixes it up with more desperation in their voice. This works really well, as always I’m a sucker for this kind of thing. Whilst there are so many bands that attempt the short and sweet screamo sound (which I generally can’t get enough of), there are not a lot that try things a bit more complex. So full marks for this, the more I’ve listened whilst writing this review the more impressed I’ve become to be honest. All three songs are great but maybe the final track ‘Grasp Upon Thorns’ shades it for its awesome finale. I can’t urge people enough who are into screamo to check out the scene in the South Asia and Australisia region if you have not already.
One hundred copies released on Utarid Tapes, the band previously also self released it on CDr. Some split releases upcoming, overall a very promising start from Zainichi.
18th April 2009