Hesitation Wounds : "Chicanery"

Going into an album from a band comprised of members from Touche Amore, Trap Them, the Hope Conspiracy and Gouge Away, I expect an explosion from the get go. Instead there is 43  seconds of  dark brooding guitar that gave me a false sense of security and then the explosion came. It is pretty straight forward punk, the first song has a metallic break down and there are plenty of hard core punches thrown. It political anger , about what makes him fucking sick. I am fine with punk doing this I know what I am signing on for in this regard. The first 3 songs are under 3 minutes .

 "Trending" goes into moment of hyper speed blasting. There are some cool riffs in it, but even  for punk the rule here is cool riffs alone do not a good song make. The vocals are a throat yell that only conveys anger. This gets a little tedious by "At Our Best When We're Asleep". The more melodic guitar to "Hellevangelist"  give it more sonic motion that is more interesting. The album ends as it begins though they develop that into riff into an actual song, which I think is a really cool idea and more forward thinking than  most punk. This song is more sonically intense and darker which of course works well for me. It is also the best song on the album.

This album is short and sweet, except for the hyper fast part that got on my nerves, if you want angry punk then this is a good soundtrack for the state of today's world. These guys are of course total pros at what they do. This album is on Deathwish Inc, so it is going to be quality production wise. I will give it an 8. While I enjoyed the listens I got from this it is not something I would listen to on a regular basis, as when it is time for this kind of thing I would go for Converge instead, as they are darker and more metallic. But if you want something that is more punk than not then this will be up your alley. This album comes out August 30th.

Hesitation Wounds :"Awake For Everything".

Just catching up with this band who put this album out back in May, but it's never too early to catch up on the rest of the year as end of the year lists will be on us before we know it. This band plays a very raw and emotive form of hard core that uses a sonic drone to their attack. The songs are short and sweet, under the three minute mark. The second song "Bleach" doesn't strike me as being as inspired as the opening track. "Hands Up" has more groove as well as sonic hammering, making their only weak point the vocals that scream in the same tone and cadence most of the time. Their solution for this is sit the vocals further back in the mix for the darker, moodier "New Abuse". The guitar touches on almost shoe gaze like melodies. There is more of a grind core explosion for the punk of "All We Know".  At under a minute there is not much they can do to develop into from being a temper tantrum into an actual song.

The verse guitar to "Ends (pt1) helps keeps it from just being another stampede. "Guthrie" starts off in a more one dimensional direction, but the guitars expand this and make it bigger. Finally the vocals shift into a low murmur rather than a scream and the guitar weave a dark web that reminds me of Converges more introspective moments. "Teeth" takes a dirty more metallic guitar tone and sets it over a punk rock pacing.This is one of the album's more thoughtfully written songs. Even at a minute and a half they cram enough into it to make it work. The vibe changes dramatically on the second part of "ends" . The vocals go from a more narrative tone into the angered screaming. The guitars shift with this. At three minutes and forty -two seconds this is one of the album's longer songs.

There is a more expressive and melodic sense to the more screamo "Streamlined" that closes the album. The guitar melodies are cool and the vocals even seem to be letting his voice crack in a little different manner though it's far from a dramatic change in what he does. Vocals aside this album is pretty strong I'll give it an 8.