Labels: Clue #2 – Deaf Cult
Review by: Oli Saunders
Damages contains ex-members of All Through A Life, a short lived band from Canada who released just one 7”. That record is amazing by the way and if you like nineties emo and haven’t heard it you should go check it out right now – then come back and continue reading this. ATAL were due to make a split with Brito but then sadly both bands lost members and it all fell apart. Such a shame as that would have been a great release. I’m not sure what’s going on from the Dutch side of things but from the Canadian side at least we still have Damages.
This 7” contains two songs from the band, ‘Gears’ and ‘A Failing Cell’. I don’t want to make too many comparisons with ATAL but it is useful to some extent. First thing to note is that there is a new vocalist so things sound a bit different on this front, though not actually by that much. The instrument sound itself is also a bit more basic – it’s got more of a straightforward hardcore sound and less variation than ATAL. I find it interesting just how different the artwork is too – the ATAL 7” has some of the weirdest record artwork I have ever seen whilst the cover for this record is simply black and white, showing barbed wire and a fence.
The vocals are yelled and shouted for the most part, but are not overly harsh. A common occurence is the use of spoken parts. It’s a combination of bands like Shotmaker, Moss Icon and Roosevelt, plus there are clear ATAL influences which is not surprising. If you like any of those bands you should like this. It’s got all the right ingredients and it’s just nice to see a few bands in modern times putting out passionate music akin to the nineties. Damages have a fair number of new releases planned and I look forward to hearing them. This is out in Canada on Clue #2 and in Germany via Deaf Cult, definitely worth checking out.
1st October 2009