Labels: Adagio830
Review by: Andy Malcolm
You’d have to jump through hoops these days to get me to listen to a screamy emo band’s LP more than once, but fortunately Drowning With Our Anchors are eager enough to perform such an act of degredation in the name of getting me to listen to their record. Shit, I even travelled 6 hours to see them live (although admittedly, that was more to do with seeing friends than the band), back in April or so. Drowning With Our Anchors manage to excite me by playing a beguiling cross of mid 90s weepiness with the brute strength and muscle of the inimitable Yaphet Kotto. This makes for a really solid LP that is only let down by a couple of extended passages of instrumental tedium that really break the flow. For the rest of the record, DWoA hit a classic groove, tying together that oh so delightful combination of hardcore guitars and fleeting melody to produce a quite beautiful noise. There are two singers, and this is where the Yaphet comparison is particularly apt – you get one whiney ‘Mag’, and one hoarse bellowing ‘Casey’. Of course, it’d be unfair to leave the review at that, as the band completely nail the emo sound that very few bands dare to try these days, and hence make as good a pure emo LP since that Kids Return album.
You probably own this already by now if you are remotely interested in hardcore styled emo, as I have been terribly slack with this review, but if for some reason you don’t, and you number among your favourite bands Yaphet Kotto, Life at these Speeds, and an array of mid 90s things on Repercussion, then Drowning With Our Anchors will thrill you.