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.

Wear Your Wounds : " Rust on the Gates of Heaven"

Jacob of Converge has established a more permanent line up that consists of members of The Red Chord, Cave-in,  Trap-Them and Hate Breed. But do not let that deceive you this has metallic elements in play but could only loosely be called a metal band. Ben Chisholm of Chelsea Wolfe fame, contributes as well. So does Gared  from PlanesMistakenforstars. His appearance I was most excited about though it is often relegated to the background since this is Jacobs show and it can be hard to tell their voice apart in places.  Jacob's singing voice has improved. Granted he has effects on it and is not projecting it. But he can hold a tune. Gared from Planes comes in behind him to bolster the melody. I like that this is darkly melodic. I comes with a  heavier build that is not metal, but works. It would most easily be filed under post-rock. "Paper Panther" is more straight forward sonic rock with the post rock atmosphere dialed down.

 There is am ore spoken tone to his voice on "Tomorrow's Sorrows" which winds it's way around to a heavy chugged riff. "Brittle Pillar" also has some heft to it. I like the fact he is using restraint since if this was a Converge album he would have already been screaming. It turns into a sludgey rumble. "Truth Is a Lonely Word " manged to be darker un expected ways that are not tangible and best heard. I can say this song has some great guitar playing. "Rainbow Fades" has some sounds that are already familiar to this project like soft whispered vocals and an almost ballad like intro. The guitar playing gets more Pink Floyd like when we are in the meat of the song. "Love In Peril " mood-wise feels like it could have come from "Crack the Skye".  The weak spots in his voice come through on "Lurking Shadows" thought it still works because he has made no illusion as to begin a great singer and exploits this fact in Converge"s earlier work. There cool touches of country in the guitars to this song.

If Pink Floyd's "Obscured By Clouds " had been the soundtrack to a movie about a serial killer the sound might have been like "Shrinking Violet". The  album ends as it began with a instrumental piano centered piece.  I will give this one an 9.5 . The guitar playing on this album is fucking great. It's not Converge, but it doesn't need to be.

Trap Them : " Crown Feral"

I was surprised how much I liked the first song, the second song was more along the lines of what I expected from the guys a grittier Converge like metallic hardcore. There is a touch of Motorhead to the drumming on "Prodigala". This slows into a more mid paced riff with angular edges. "Luster Pendulums" finds are more savage speed and taste for chaos beginning to take over. "Malengines, Here Where Should they Be" is very similar to the previous song. While they have a good dense guitar sound that is very organic, it begins to give the songs a uniformity that starts to wear on me until they go up the octave on the break down. They continue to rely on brutality going into "Speak Nigh". The dry angry rasp of the vocals is a monotone layer of white noise at this point.

I was beginning to feel my intrigue shift into disappointment, so it's good that slowed things down into a darker pound for "Twitching In the Auras". "Revival Spines" got off to more of a punk start and while it maintains the level of venom this album lashes out with it blared past me and did not engage my ears beyond surface level noise. Bass starts off "Stray of the Tongue", but once it blasts off we are along for the same ride all over again. For regular readers of this sit it should come as no surprise that I prefer the darker more death metal like beginning to "Phantom Air" that the more monochrome shades of anger this album throws at you.

I'll round this album up to a 7. I would say this is not my thing, but that is not completely true because I love Converge and much of what these guys do is derivative of that sound. I think they are very capable at what they do. The vocals certainly could use more dynamics, but aside from that the performance is solid. I am guessing if you are  a fan of this band then you are not looking for them to really venture out side of the box they have made for themselves and they will not disappoint in that regard.

Enabler : "Fail to Feel Safe" review & "By Demons Denied" video

There is a good bit of drama surrounding this album, which has nothing to do with the music , but has bloggers speculating as to if this album will even see release. The drama involves accusations made against the singer by his ex-girl friend who also played bass in the band.Truth be told only the people involved know the truth, so I don't give a fuck about anything but the music. The music in question is a dark style of very metallic hard-core that crossover past the point of being able to see what which genre is which. Jeff Lohrber , who has played in Today is the Day and Trap Them is the ring leader creating something that falls closer to Myspace metal in some ways than say Converge, but I like the prophetic title track "Fail to Feel Safe". There is an chaotic element to their sound that is still confined to the context of the song.
There is a more punk feel to the beginning of "By Demons Denied"where the singer exclaims that there is a hell for him that he is living in. The album carries hefty momentum as it over powers you, yet the band doesn't forsake melody. The clean vocals are set back in the mix , in some ways this reminds me of a less down tuned Drop Dead Gorgeous ."Euphoric Revenge" is full of hate as he wishes someone the worse and has a front row seat to watch them suffer. "Isolation Sickness" is the first song that comes up on the more lukewarm filler side. The coarser vocals dominate until the layered chorus, and there is some sonic guitar playing that helps the song out."Sinister Drifter" doesn't bring anything new to the table that we haven't heard from a thousand bands before. The more melodic side returns on "Sailing the Sea of Fire". "Haunted" has a cool chorus , but the first verse is a mush of chugging. The chug coming out of the chorus works better in that context. The more punk side of hardcore is shown on "Drownage". It has some thrashing riffs thrown in. The metal elements feel better to me on "Demolition Praise".

In some way the purging of demons done on this albums makes me think of these guys as a hardcore version of Nachtmystium. Another band whose front man brings upon a fair amount of controversy and negative press. However when you are playing metal shouldn't that be the case ? "Malady" opens in a haunting melodic manner. The song kicks into and soars with a vengeance. He announces on this song that he is singing for their loss and sorrows. The clean vocals are well placed and don't just stick to the good cop bad cop dynamic. "La Furia" keeps a similar sonic unease, but throws it at you at a more upbeat pace, with gang vocals tossed in as accents. The song slows down and builds intensity. They slow down and pound into "Sabotage Within" and churn it into a more sludge ridden form of hardcore.

Overall this angry album is more emotionally rawer  than most  of the other more mainstream slanted metal Century Media will be releasing  will hear this year. I think it is still rough enough around the edges so that fans who have stuck with the band up to this point will dig it, I like it better than some of their more underground peers like Xibalba as there are more layers and melody kicked into the density. I'll give it a 9, I am not sure how many repeated listens I will get out of it , but I can not help but acknowledge it is a well crafted addition to the genre is represents.

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