Labels: Small Town – We Heart Records
Review by: Oli Saunders
I have in my hands a promo copy of the new split between Lavotchkin and Crocus, I believe it officially came out a few days ago. Having been converted to the beauty of DIY music and its surrounding ethics over time it’s not a great start to be honest – putting “for press and promo only” on the CD along with copyright symbols makes it less about the music and more about the product. Pretty much all my favorite bands and labels have such amazing nonchalent attitudes towards these kinds of things and I have so much respect towards people who put out music simply for the love of it. Normally I don’t care about such details as I like to just focus on the music, but this morning it annoys me a little bit, I guess I’ve never seen a screamo band involved in this kind of thing. You might laugh as me for complaining about this but then we are simply on different wavelengths. You would be on the wavelength of the majority it has to be said, but I am listening to better records!
Okay so let me discuss the music. Lavotchkin take up the first three songs of this split. They play hardcore a bit like The Hope Conspiracy. The vocals remind me a lot of this band, there is not the same variation in the instruments though. All three songs go along at the same tempo and pretty much sound the same. That’s all good if you like the sound but it’s not for me. It’s angry and you can headbang to it but it doesn’t get me going. To be fair, I don’t think there are loads of bands of this style about these days since the metalcore craze ended, so it’s cool that they are outputting this stuff. But I’m not a fan of the style anymore and there are bands that did it so much better and with more originality, sorry.
Crocus then play three songs or Orchid worshipping screamo. Their sound has changed a little bit from their previously released EP and they’ve distinguished it a bit more. I pretty much agree with Joe on Collective who reviewed their EP though, it’s nice but pretty generic. I don’t mind generic either but it has to be done well – Enoch Ardon and Gone With The pain are generic but awesome – this is just done okay. I saw these guys a year back and I did really enjoy them, good intensity in my opinion and the songs are solid. And again there are not lots of screamo bands in the UK (though in the last few years the number has jumped greatly) so I am happy to see them about. But there are better UK bands of this style and you would be better off checking out Kaddish, Mesa Verde, Black Channels, Me And Goliath and Battle of Wolf 359.
In summary, these are not, as the promo says “two of the most promising newcomers in hardcore”, but they are okay.
4th July 2009