New Music Reviews! (Hardcore Edition)
Touche Amore - Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me
Just like last week, I was drawn to this record by the influences. This time, comparisons were drawn to Revolution Summer bands like Rites of Spring. Plus, I’d heard good things about this band, so I decided to check it out. My first impressions before even playing the music were good; the album has 13 songs, but is less than 21 minutes long. The opening song, Tilde, starts off gentle, before launching into an all-out audio assault. The rest of the album is similar, with loud guitar, crashing drums and cymbals, and the lead singer howling like an unholy mixture of Steve Albini (Big Black, Shellac) and Guy Picciotto (Rites of Spring, Fugazi). There’s almost no silence on the album. The only breaks for the listener are when the band plays quieter bits, like the mostly piano Condolences, hearkening back to At the Drive-In’s Non-Zero Possibility. A great listen for anyone seeking high energy music.
Recommended Tracks: Tilde, Uppers/Downers, Method Act, Amends
Misfits - The Devil’s Rain
I’ve only listened to the Misfits’ first album, Walk Among Us, so I decided to listen to their newest album. The album starts off alright, although it’s severely lacking in the speed and energy that helped make the Misfits the punk legends they are today. This is one of the problems that pervades the album. For a hardcore punk band, they aren’t too fast. This is most likely due to the age of the members. It’s been almost 30 years since Jerry Only first played bass on Walk Among Us, and the years (and lineup changes) have taken a toll on the band. In all, the album’s 16 songs take 50 minutes to play out. Most of the songs lack any definitive hooks and don’t have any sort of real energy. And by the end of the album, I started to lose interest. Overly long and without too much energy, The Devil’s Rain is disappointing, even if there are a couple good songs.
Recommended Tracks: Land of the Dead, Cold In Hell, Jack The Ripper, Ghost of Frankenstein
-Lebowski