Labels: ape must not kill ape – Dingleberry – Dream Comes True – Emotionally Unstable – Impure Muzik – L’Oeil Du Tigre – Monkey Cookie – Orchid Scent – Saddest Song – Still Leben
Review by: Oli Saunders
I stumbled across Chaos Is… a few years ago when a label (I forgot which one) included their mCDr demo free with an order I had made. I was suitably impressed and they have been subject to infrequent but enjoyable listens ever since. The band have also managed to remain pretty god damn anonymous during this time, even in relative terms for a screamo band. Maybe this split will get them name-dropped a bit more frequently.
Chaos Is… contribute five quick-fire songs on this split. Last.fm has them described as a screamo/swing band but even I don’t know what that means. Jazzy screamo? Not really. To summarise their sound, I’d say it reminds me of Hyacinth, but slightly less crushing and with more group vocals and octave chords. I should give it more credit than this though, there’s no point trying to just rip of Hyacinth and they don’t intend to. What we have is a band that lies someone in the realms of modern euro screamo. The band scream in French but provide English translations, which at a quick glance look nice and poetic. Overall, this is pretty cool. I kind of prefer the demo which sounded a little more unique, but maybe give it time and I’ll change my mind.
Fuck, Wolves! use the Wow, Owls! moniker and just about get away with it. They combine some tranquil moments and build ups with fairly face paced euro screamo with some pretty evil sounding vocals. During the fast bits they sound a bit like Francis Brady and Programm C. The drummer beats the shit out of his equipment and I really like the drum recording on the record. The songs are generally a bit longer than those of Chaos Is… The slower parts are not spectacular but remain solid. The crazy chaotic bits are pretty spot on though.
In summary, fans of modern screamo should definitely give this a listen. However, I can’t help but feel my playing of this record in the future will also be infrequent, albeit enjoyable.
7th October 2010