Robyn Writes

Review: Departures/Moose Blood – Split [EP]

Two of the UK’s most exciting up and coming bands, Departures and Moose Blood, have got together to record a split record, due to be released on 12 November through Fist in the Air and No Sleep Records. Showcasing two tracks apiece, this split shows off the best bits that each band has to offer. With the hardcore aggression bounding out of Departures and an unashamedly emo delivery from Moose Blood, the record makes welcome listening for alternative fans.

The first two tracks come from Departures and in first track, ‘A Song For The Sunset’, the Scottish lads show off a strong drum presence, which is always a good sign, as it swings into life with sweet riffs and harsh vocals. The song manages to assault listeners while also taking time to slow the song in parts, if only for a while, before kicking back aggressively with their hardcore beats and riffs. The slower sections are good not only to show off a diversity of styles, but also to give centre stage to the vocals which really get the chance to stand out while the drum beat and guitars mellow.

Second track, ‘Closing Doors’, features a slower, rhythmic and guitar dominated opening, before the vocals again have their chance to stand at the front of the musical charge. “I can’t be running away, if there’s nowhere left to run to”; the emotively screamed vocals are charged full of belligerence and hostility, but they can’t take all of the credit – even though their role is at times subsidiary, the drums and guitars perfectly compliment the atmosphere created by the vocals and make the track an angst-filled joy to listen to.

The differences between the two bands can be seen in Moose Blood’s first feature on the record, ‘Stay Here’. The vocals are not as coarse, but this gives the harsher sounds, when they are brought to the fore, all the more effective. There is a slow and steady instrumental rhythm filling the background, but also some welcome guitar dominated moments, displaying an ease as a band, allowing the music to speak for itself in instrumentally driven sections.

‘Girl’ is the final track we are treated to and has become my personal favourite. It creeps to life, easing in at a very slow pace. We are left with a lone guitar and vocals, with the guitar more in the fore as the vocals come through in the background, crooning quietly over a girl “you are the best thing darling, this side of town”. This is all true until the 1.47min-ish mark when it kicks into a new lease of life. The vocals are stronger; backing vocals are repetitively chanted as the drums and more guitars pick the song up and throw it to a crescendo, asking an anonymous girl to spend the night: “Stay with me tonight, stay with me tonight”.

Two fantastic songs a-piece for two fantastic up-and-coming bands. The chance to see these playing live together shouldn’t be missed and they play several shows together at the beginning of November. If you can get to see them, then REPRESENT! Don’t miss this chance.

4 out of 5 high fives!

Dead Swans [farewell show] – Relentless Garage, London, 30/3/13

Despite not registering as a ‘cool’ band amongst some of the hardcore scene’s more picky and trendy crew for a few years now, it’s a fitting testimony to the band’s impact on UK hardcore that Dead Swans play out their last performance in front of a sold out crowd in probably the largest venue the band has ever headlined. A refreshingly varied bill of eight bands gives the show a festival atmosphere as the cream of the UK underground bids farewell to one of the most passionate, uncompromising and intense acts on the hardcore circuit.

Unfortunately I missed Strange Places and Departures but the latter of the two deserves upmost recognition for undertaking a monstrous seven hour journey to play for a mere fifteen minutes. Dedication indeed.

Honour Among Thieves, previously defunct, have picked up their instruments once again at Dead Swans’ behest. Well aware that a great swathe of the heads in the room are unfamiliar with any aspect of the band, the vocalist takes a confrontational approach in the hope of provoking some kind of response. Placing himself in the midst of the crowd, the response is gradual, but by the end of a set of rather straight-forward speedy hardcore, said vocalist is being jumped on by an eager gaggle who seem to know some of the words. A success for a band who clearly imagined they were going to play to a sea of blank faces and static figures.

Holding up the banner for carefree party jams is Gnarwolves who are going from strength to strength as of late. Stage divers, taking advantage of the lack of barrier and overbearing security, immediately set themselves upon the overwhelmingly young audience who press themselves against the stage. The kids in the know regurgitate every single word to breakneck melodic punk tunes such as ‘History Is Bunk’ as well as the softer and potentially lip quivering ‘Community, Stability,Identity’. Although they still maintain their ragged charm, the Brighton trio are a much more solid live entity thanks to their unrelenting touring schedule. The group surely won over some of the crusties at the back of the room, if not for their engaging performance, than for their much applauded quips at Don Brocco (who are cunts apparently, who knew!?). Gnarwolves debut album is awaited with eager ears.

Spitting in the face of any essence of monotony are Landscapes, who have done away with hardcore’s limitations and much notion of any distinct ‘fast’ or ‘mosh’ parts to actually create fucking great songs that are heavily impassioned and have obviously been painstakingly arranged. Sticking entirely to their much lauded debut Life Gone Wrong, the band incites a fervent response as many at the front seem to have taken it upon themselves to burn every word screamed by the emotionally pained vocalist onto their brains. Relying more on poignancy rather than sheer brutality, tracks such as ‘D.R.E.A.M’ are works of masterfully controlled dynamics that have much of the venue enthralled from start to finish.

Breaking Point have failed to impress me in the past, but despite sticking rigidly to a one-dimensional ‘mosh’ sound, tonight they seem a much more engaging live proposition. The hardcore dance enthusiasts finally take their cue to violently hurl their body parts round the pit to the mosh-ready riffs and lyrics of the vehemently straight edge disposition. Frontman Louis is rabid, confrontational and fresh off the road with his new position in Brutality Will Prevail. He repeatedly urges the crowd to “get ignorant”, a command to which they respond with aplomb.

A band with no concept of subtlety, Last Witness are instead more concerned with battering the audience into submission as down-tuned riffs rain down on a now well warmed audience. Coming on stage to the demonic screams of the intro to Slipknot’s Iowa seems perfectly apt way to signal their arrival. Despite hardly being the most intimidating of figures, lead growler Theo commands a brilliantly abrasive and guttural scream which he unleashes unfailingly even as he spends a large portion of the set in mid-air, bouncing non-stop around the stage. The riffs, ingrained with hints of nu-metal, are disgustingly crushing in their unrelenting fury. Oldie ‘Dreamland Welcomes You’ and newie ‘Saccharine’ are blasts of ultra-aggressive metalcore that keeps the pit action frantic whilst closer ‘The Void’ and its groove-laden metalisms end the set on a positively destructive note.

Taking to the stage in a hail of feedback, the scream of “It’s starting” announces the arrival of ‘Thinking Of You’ from Dead Swans‘ only full length, Sleepwalkers, with stage divers launching themselves from the monitors onto the packed front rows. The band only make it halfway through the song before their frontman has hurled himself into the crowd. An inspiring vocalist, Nick throws every morsel of anguish and pain into his vocals and despite becoming increasingly intoxicated throughout the set his acerbic vocal chords never falter. For once, a hardcore show is blessed with a live sound of relative clarity, with Benny’s dazzling drumwork sounding nothing less than monstrous through the forgiving PA and the vocal often distinguishable from the cacophony around it. With most of their songs clocking in at two minutes or less they manage to cover a great swathe of their discography, the cataclysmic ‘Hanging Sun’ from their debut Southern Blue to the breathtakingly aggressive ‘In The Half-light’ from the split with the now massive Architects boys and their well-honed hardcore sound of ‘You Can Only Blame Yourself’ from their most recent release Anxiety And Everything Else. Throughout the almost hour long performance every band member experiences the joys and perils of stage-diving, with even sticksman Benny finding a break in the set to jump on some heads. Although the pace of the show falters toward the end, an understandable factor considering the amount of energy thrown into every song, the bands performance is pure passion from start to finish and an inspiring spectacle. Finishing with an encore of ‘Preferring The Worst’, the first song ever penned by the group, rounds off the night in logical fashion. An awe-inspiring performance by a group who obviously still court huge adulation in the UK underground. Dead Swans and much of the crowd are by the end of the set saturated in sweat, mentally drained and physically battered- all the hallmarks of a perfectly executed hardcore show and the best send-off Dead Swans could have asked for. They will be sorely missed.

5 out of 5 high fives!

Crash Doubt Festival – The Showroom Lincoln, 3/6/12 [pt 2]

The Sunday started off wet and miserable. On our drive into Lincoln, Kitteh and I stared gloomily out of the windows at the grey skies and thanked the hardcore gods that the venue was indoors. When we were inside, they tried to foist off some Powerade onto us instead of Red Bull. Kitteh was perturbed, I was ecstatic. Full of sugar and a new found zeal, we stumbled upon Towering Heights (3.5/5), a pleasant surprise for the first band of the day. Instead of the screamo-esque sort of thing we were expecting, we were hit by some “Faith No More times Guns And Roses taking a segway via Neil Young and being pretty good” rock and roll. A soulful start to our Sunday, Towering Heights had some great musical talent on show. The bass in particular was magnificent and the vocalist had some powerful lungs on him. It was an odd fit, but one we were very happy with. With a bit more confidence, Towering Heights will be incredible. They Say Fall (2/5) were another story – kiddie hardcore but without the typical screaming vocals. While the band played some highly recognisable but relatively tight melodies, the vocalist wailed over the top like a banshee who’d been impaled with a flaming spear and had just been told their cat had died. Best to be avoided unless they get a new vocalist.

Never Cry Wolf (2.5/5) were yet another of the bro style hardcore bands we stumbled in on (and usually promptly walked away from) throughout the weekend. They played fine but unenthusiastically and failed to grab us, there being nothing particularly individual about their style at all. Brotherhood of the Lake (3.5/5) were a great improvement on this, assaulting our eardrums with their furious yet doomy hardcore. Peppering their set with movie quotes started off cool but got a little bit stale as it happened before every song without any real concept behind it, but ignoring that, they were solid, if requiring a little more movement (personally, we were just a bit upset that the hammered guy from the day before wasn’t pulling some moves in front of them).

Upstairs, Astpai (3.5/5) played some great gruff punk. Bouncy and heartfelt, it was the stuff of Tony Hawk games. While we only caught half a set, they made for a fine interval in between bands on the Big Cheese stage. Then downstairs, Mallory Knox (4.5/5 from Ripper, but a resounding 5/5 from Kitteh) blew us away. A fantastic deviation from the identikit hardcore, Mallory Knox are heartfelt, honest and catchy as hell. Their fine-tuned melodies flooded the venue and were received by an enthusiastic and highly grateful crowd. Woody from POLAR also made a far less threatening appearance, which was nice.

Above Them (5/5) are never, ever anything short of amazing. On Sunday, on the Punktastic stage, it was simply a joy to watch them perform. Above Them have brought out my favourite record so far this year (and if you haven’t got Are We A Danger To Ourselves, go and get it now from Specialist Subject Records, one of the best decisions you’ll ever make) and while only a few songs from that made it into their set, their positively electric performance showed them at the best I’ve ever seen them at. Melodic punk rock at its absolute best.

Departures (3.5/5) were pretty good fun. Good melodic hardcore. A clear Parkway Drive influence coming through, and I’m sure if they were on a bigger stage, they’d be a bit more lively but were a bit too timid to step off and parade in the pit like a few of the other bands. Nevertheless, I’ve heard their album is great and based on their performance, I’ll be bound to check it out. TRC (4.5/5) were possibly our biggest surprise of the weekend. Absolutely crushing hardcore with a rap element to it. Incredible breakdowns too. Kitteh and I were left scratching our heads, holding extremely hot cups of tea, thinking “how have we not heard of these guys before?” Now we have, and we’re happy that TRC are in our lives.

Our final band of the weekend was Random Hand (5/5). Random Hand are brilliant wherever they are. But on the Punktastic stage this weekend, in their own words, they KILLED IT. The best performance of the weekend, Random Hand made us all dance, skank and lose our minds at their simply sublime ska-punk. Ever the masters of banter (“I once tried to reach the French town of Evian on a novelty pedalo but didn’t get there cause I only had an hour and had to take it back”), there were dual circlepits, police sirens, general mayhem and I thought the floor was going to collapse. The lads were on top form. And with that, Kitteh and I decided to be not-so-punk, go home, get a cup of tea and a cheese and tomato pizza and watch The Cowboy Way in our pyjamas because we were absolutely knackered and The Skints are supporting Less Than Jake later this month anyway. But there wasn’t a better way we could have ended the weekend, and we couldn’t have celebrated the end of our degree anywhere better than Crash Doubt.