Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted

Defeater - Empty Days And Sleepless Nights

Defeater has come to be my favorite band to emerge in recent times.  They are the perfect blend of energetic hardcore and the near post-rock ethos and emotionally searing vocals of skramz bands such as Envy and Saetia respectively, and even the slightest touch of blues makes an appearance.  Defeater's strength relies on grabbing you by the chest; Instead of aiming straight for the throat with brutal riffs and breakdowns, they play with painfully direct emotion that grips you around each corner and mountain they crash through, and manage to create arrangements that are repeatedly so massive they could block out the entire sky.  This formula has been the typeset for most recent hardcore acts, and many others like Modern Life is War amd Life Long Tragedy have great success with the format, but none of them can touch the peaks that defeater creates or the raw emotion they rip through you.

Instrumentally they rely on a lot of simple but efficient composing techniques put together very soundly.  The drums are by far the most technical showing on the album, as the guitars are mainly focused on texture, power, and rhythm.  Instrumental parts are often contrasted against each other; a somewhat intense, loud drumbeat will be paired with guitars that consist of nothing but calm morphing textural murmurs.  The result are some interesting "experimental" bits, that don't sound experimental at all.

This is their second full length, after a phenomenal debut album and equally impressive e.p. which caused quite a stir.  I'm going to give this album two different scores, as there is a clear cut divide ten tracks into the album.  Track ten, White Oak Doors, builds across several minutes, until it would be impossible to create any more tension.  Suddenly, it cuts to silence mid bar, literally mid word.  After about a minute the 4 acoustic tracks of the album kick in.  These tracks feel very odd on this album and don't feel true to any identity this album would have.  Let's start with the first ten.

When Warm Blood Rush opens the album, it seems like it's just going to be an average hardcore romper, but after a few alternating verses everything opens up and the entire spectrum of possible noise seems to be filled by their giant sound.  Recording engineer and guitarist of Defeater Jay Maas really shows off his expertise with the way moments like these sound throughout the album.  Some other key tracks include Waves Crash, Clouds Roll, which intros with a remarkable combination of churning rhythms mashed together that feel like an undercurrent pushing and pulling against your sense balance, and No Kind of Home, where incredibly tasteful drumming cruises alongside incessant guitar riffs for a fast paced track that really shows off some of the great guitar textures this band is capable of.  No Kind of Home is followed by White Knuckles, which wastes no time overloading your sense of urgency with bursting and blooming guitars.  In addition to the excitingly fast paced, standard hardcore there are several huge climaxes, like the goosebump inducing ending to track 9, At Peace.

After the heavier songs on this album stop, so does the appeal.  The 4 acoustic tracks are all boring and un-inspiring after the wonders that took place earlier on.  None of them are particularly bad, but none of them, except possibly Brothers, really have any value on this album musically.  I don't pay that much attention to lyrics- which is a shame in this case cause Defeater are known for having great lyrics and so far they have only released concept albums.  It's possible that the lyrics in these songs tie together the storyline of the entire album but I will leave that for someone who pays more attention to such details to figure out.  If I ever listen to these tracks again, it will be because i haven't switched em off after listening to the first tracks.

Non acoustic:  10/10
Acoustic:  5/10

Defeater - Empty Days and Sleepless Nights

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Glassjawsssss

Coloring Book

Post Glassjaw?  Nothing to get too excited about.  The first completely new material recorded by Glassjaw in years takes on a decidedly more experimental and proggy vibe, heavily exploring the softer side of their music which will please some and under-please others.  The chaotic, emotive vocals are less madness influenced, and actually sound quite a bit like the little I have heard of the Deftones vocalist.  Each song sounds relatively similiar, and the EP flows from track to track with such incredible ease that it is often hard to miss the ends and begininngs of songs if you don't pay attention.  My standout track is "Gold," an urgent, thick, and textured  song that pulses along like a defective heartbeat.  The rhythms of each instrument seem to only be loosely related, like they were playing at different tempos and it just happened to match up.  Directly after a disorientingly deep bass slide, a drum fills starts of the next track, "Vanilla Poltergeist Snake," which showcases everything that I feel is wrong with this album.  It's restrained the whole way through, feeling like it's about to burst into a huge soaring chorus but instead it remains claustrophobic, never reaching it's potential power.  Not to mention the actual chorus is just irritating, as the lyrics "no one gets out alive, no one" are repeatedly mashed into your skull.  Luckily, the next track, "Miracles in Inches," is like they took the previous song and compltely reassed the weak points and worked it into a new and improved piece.

Overall,  if you're dying for more Glassjaw releases pick this up but otherwise I'd say skip it for maybe Our Color Green or one their classics.

5.5/10



Our Color Green

Everything I could have expected and wished for.  Heavy, soaring post-hardcore influenced by madness.
I believe this e.p. is composed of songs that the band has been playing live for several years, and this is the first time they have shown up together on a non-bootleg release.  It explains their sound; They sound like what you would have thought Glassjaw would have recorded right after their last e.p., quite a difference from the direction Coloring Book went in.  All Good Junkies Go To Heaven starts it off with a lively and technical piece, making about as much noise as is possible with a guitar, bass and drums.  The second track, Jesus Glue, has a great loud and quiet aesthetic,  unforgettable vocal melodies and a screwed up freak out to finish it off.  But the best is saved for last in You Think You're (John Fucking Lennon).  Rhythmically mobile, the song cruises by with ease as Daryl Palumbo screams his lungs out over the wide guitars.  The great thing about this release is that it still feels like classic Glassjaw, but there is obviously a great deal of experimentation beneath it all.

8/10

Kidcrash - Snacks

Kidcrash's third album brings an obvious step forward in maturity while dialing back the reckless abandon.  After 07's Jokes, Snacks feels restrained, and even delicate at times, although only in comparison as this is still Kidcrash.  The basic formula of wildly complex dual guitar riffs, running over intricate drumming within a "real" emo context is still intact, it's just a little less insane.  Each song is very intelligently arranged and composed, with much more rigidity in every aspect, meaning they have never sounded so tight and in sync.  The song structures are scary good and do well to emphasize the most dramatic bits and riffs.
All of this is well and good... but it kind of makes me miss how deranged and intense Jokes was.  Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic album, and I really can't see the band going in any other direction, but if I were to refer a first time listener I would suggest listening Jokes before moving on to this.
8/10

Also, I greatly appreciate their album titles, cause listing off their LPs as "Jokes" and "Snacks" has a sort of joyous ring to it.

Torche: Meanderthal

If pop punk stoned up, wielded enourmous masses of rumbling distortion, and bathed in sludge then Torche would sit comfortably within the genre.  Meanderthal takes "pop" to a new low (tonally),  combing ethereal, spaced out vocals over a fierce, deep wall of guitar and bass.  It's easy to get into, but it doesn't get old, provided you skip some of the tracks that drag out just a tad too long, and the unnecessary title track closer.

Each song is pleasantly unique.  Compared to the rest of the album, "Sundown" is quite sparse, but manages to be rousing and restrained at the same time and the powerful groove of the band is intact all the way through.  "Fat Waves" is the perfect culmination of Torche's craft.  The first half sounds like raging pop punk, with infectious vocals, bouncy guitars and an incessant tempo, before seamlessly transitioning to a stampeding, repetitive instrumental bit that ramps up to a climactic ending.  Following it is the behemoth "Amnesian".  Probably the heaviest on the disc, the pulsing low end emphasized on this track and to get the most out of it a subwoofer is recommended.  Another standout is "Healer".  I imagine this song to be what The Offspring would sound like with drop A guitars and a tasteful singer.

Highly recommended , it's not hard to get into this album and it will please you.
4/5