Robyn Writes

Our Time Down Here – Midnight Mass

I first encountered Our Time Down Here at Crash Doubt Fest. I didn’t actually watch them, but one of them ran up to me clutching a CD in his hand going “Is that an AFI tattoo on your shoulder?” I replied yes, we chatted about AFI for a bit and he gave me their album, because if I liked AFI and Alkaline Trio, I might just like theirs. At the very least, I was certainly impressed by the Goonies reference in their name. So, upon my return to more southern climes, I turned off all the lights and gave it a whirl.

The album opens with an evocative piano introduction in 7th October 1984. The eerie children’s choir provide an intriguing start, but the intro as a whole doesn’t necessarily pull any punches, instead taking a devastatingly subtle approach. This means that any expectations that you may have had are then completely torn down by Precognition‘s fast and dirty punk rock. Precognition is desperate, frantic and utterly exhilarating, no doubt aided by the almost breathless vocals from Will Gould. Gould’s vocals throughout the album are so distinctive and a pleasant change from the cookie-cutter pop-punk whine that’s infected so much clean-vocalled alternative music in the UK at the moment. There’s a fair amount of songs like Precognition on the album – for example, I’m A Hex and Every Little Thing She Does Is Tragic have that same intensity – but there’s also songs with a far greater pop-punk feel. Our Time Down Here explore a decent variety of different styles throughout the album, but are most comfortable treading the line between horrorpunk and pop-punk, leading to some absolutely rip roaring anthems like 4 Months.

That said, the band never lose sight of the atmosphere they’re trying to create. Just as you think everything’s fine, that children’s choir comes back in – Crystal Effigy is particularly unnerving and the choir’s presence pervades The Power Of Charm, which in itself is gleefully dark with some great guitar. There’s a spoken word interlude, Naglfar, with some serious rainfall in the background and ups the intensity tenfold before the slow burning opening to The Reckoning, which again shifts all expectation with some incredible gang vocals and very speedy drum work from Shane Bonthuys. That atmosphere is maintained best through the lyrics. All across Midnight Mass, the lyrics revel in melancholy and terror. Final track Angel Of Mercy asks “will it all amount to nothing?” and I can say, hand on heart, that Midnight Mass has achieved everything it set out to do and more – that bonus hardcore track at the end is just too brilliant to ruin the tone.

To finish, what is most refreshing about Midnight Mass is that while it obviously draws from that horrorpunk scene of the early 2000s, a la AFI, Alkaline Trio and Tiger Army, the album is in no way a carbon copy of the records that were coming out at that time. True, The Death Rattle has a definite Alkaline Trio influence in the guitars and in the vocals, but it doesn’t sound like a rip off – instead, it’s a well done tribute to that scene as well as being so much more, and it’s great to see a band like this coming out of the UK. Hopefully, the next time I see them, I will actually be able to catch the live show.

4 out of 5 high fives!

Tags are the new shit, or at least, I think that’s what Marilyn Manson meant.

Hello!

Basically, as part of my quest to make TBO better this summer, I’ve decided to tag every single entry where appropriate. All entries are now tagged with which bands feature in them. If it’s a live review, it’s now tagged with live so you can find all our live reviews in one place. Occasionally, things are tagged with the appropriate record label. If you spot free download, you’re in luck!

Before TBO became completely music focused, I had an awesome team of writers who wrote about a wonderful variety of things. Sadly, that wasn’t the future for us, but by using the old content tag, you can find all of their writing! Each post has been tagged with what it’s about, but they’ve also been tagged with their respective author. So for example, if you’re digging soufex’s previous articles, you can look all of them up in one go!

There’s still a lot to do to the site. I’m hoping to completely overhaul the theme and put something leaner and meaner in its place. And a hell of a lot classier. But there probably will still be dinosaurs because I just can’t quit those extinct lizards. (Also, for excellent dinosaur related folk punk, you should probably go check out Fuck Yeah, Dinosaurs!) We’re also trying to focus on more video content and features alongside the reviews.

We still have a decent sized review queue, but please submit your tunes to ripper@twobeatsoff.co.uk if you fancy a review! We want to get your stuff out there, honest.

xoxo – Ripper

New writers request!

Hello, all!

As you may have realised, Kitteh and myself are basically the only two working on this zine at the moment. While we love it with all our hearts, it can get a bit difficult to get material out on time with just the two of us working on it and we’d love to be able to get the ball rolling on some other projects for the site. Therefore, TwoBeatsOff is looking for a few good reviewers. We don’t do news articles, like other websites, purely because there are so many other sites working on that. We do, however, do reviews, interviews and features based on the alternative scene.

So, we are specifically looking for REVIEWERS at this point in time, who may then get to work on interviews and features after I’ve seen enough of your work. The position is unpaid (we’re not exactly earning any money except site upkeep ourselves), but we get a lot of hits a month and if you’re blogging about music anyway, why not post it somewhere with a little more exposure? We can promise sweet new music to listen to, at the very least.

Email me at ripper@twobeatsoff.co.uk if you’re interested with some samples of your writing.

Thanks!

In Remission – The Great & Shallow [EP]

It seems that these days, a rather large proportion of the UK post-hardcore scene is hailing from the more southern climes of the country. Indeed, the monopoly on the genre has been sort of released by Wales in recent years and passed down to… well, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. In Remission are a bunch of lads from the latter and are no exception to the post-hardcore trend.

Admittedly, there’s not a vast deal of things on this EP to set them apart. The problem is that In Remission have played it safe with The Great & Shallow. There’s flashes of experimentation throughout – there are some very catchy hooks in songs like Broken Notes, and some great breakdowns along the way , particularly in Fractions (which sounds a bit nu-metally in places, adding to the fun) and my favourite part of the EP is the call and response vocals in Floodlights, but on the whole, the band stick to a fairly safe formula. This is a great shame because they’ve certainly got the talent to pull off some more complicated stuff. Tom Norman and Rodney Smith throw in some great guitar lines and those brief flashes of brilliance, of something more complex, show that the potential is there; the first instrumental section of Floodlights is a complete assault and it works. Daniel Lillie’s vocals are perfectly good enough for what they’ve produced but again, the feeling that he could push himself more and open up that range just a little is present and niggling the whole way through. Final track Solstice is the major highlight of the EP – it just feels big. It’s a well crafted rock ballad with some clever lyrics and an incredible chorus.

That said, what In Remission have done is produce a solid, enjoyable EP, even if it draws from its influences perhaps too closely. Discipline sounds as if it could have come straight off Funeral For A Friend’s Hours, and Broken Notes has some seriously Underoath-esque moments, but they still have their own charm, such as the choral effects on the chorus in the latter. One thing that they should be drawing from their influences is the amount of polish on the production – at times, the EP is a little fuzzy and with this genre, every section needs to ring out clear.

The Great & Shallow is definitely a good listen. Nevertheless, with a bit more exploration and experimentation, In Remission have the potential to be truly great.

3.5 out of 5 high fives!

We Are Fiction – Earth Medicine [single]

Earth Medicine is the third single from We Are Fiction since their debut EP. The two previous singles, Sail On and My Dreams Are Haunted, have certainly treaded into more heartfelt, melodic territory in comparison to the positively destructive eponymous EP, but Earth Medicine dives straight on in and it immediately pays off. The slow burning verses with Marc’s angelic vocals are enough to send shivers down your spine, and his dulcet tones are perfectly countered by Phil’s heartwrenching screams. After that initial experience, the song then immediately launches into some seriously atmosphere building guitar and a soaring chorus, the likes of which We Are Fiction always do perfectly, completely knocking you for six. The end instrumental section and chant has just as much drama and intensity as the opening to an AFI album – which is to say, a hell of a lot. While We Are Fiction never disappoint, Earth Medicine is a resounding success and a firm reminder as to why they are one of the most exciting bands in the UK post-hardcore scene at present.

5 out of 5 high fives!