Robyn Writes

Alexisonfire – Brixton Academy, 2/12/12

Tonight’s show at the prestigious Brixton Academy hosts the beginning of the final chapter of the most well loved post-hardcore band of the past decade; a band that spawned a plethora of imitators all trying to capitalise on the band’s unique and dynamic emotional tension. After somewhat fizzling out back in 2010 after the release of their confused E.P Dog’s Blood, it seems that these handful of final shows have reminded the thousands in the venue, as well as the many more left without tickets, just how much these five unassuming Canadians meant to so many people.

As the venue fills, Brighton hardcore heroes The Ghost Of A Thousand take to the huge stage to unleash their rock n’ roll tinged hardcore. Although they came out of retirement to play this show at the behest of the headliners, Ghost are every bit the tight, well oiled punk machine they used to be. At first, the crowd greet the band with reserved politeness for the antagonistic no-holds-barred opener ‘Left For Dead’, but the rock n’ roll inspired ‘Bright Lights’ gets those at the front moving. ‘Up To You’ ups the ante, with vocalist Tom Lacey heading into the crowd as fans scramble for the mic. Lacey produces the quote of the night, perfectly summing up the predicament of both bands: “They say you play Brixton academy twice in your career, once on the way up and once on the way down. It’s nice to be back.” ‘Black Art Number One’ sees the small rowdy gaggle at the front throwing themselves around the pit as if their lives depended on it before final song ‘Bored Of Math’ comes to a close with three members of the band held aloft by the crowd.

Tonight the ravenous crowd will be treated to a whopping twenty-three song set spanning all of two hours and encompassing every Alexisonfire release from their debut through to their Dog’s Blood E.P. As the lights go down and the Alexisonfire banner descends at the back of atmospherically lit the stage the levels of excitement is almost unbearable and as the band take to the stage they’re greeted by deafening screams from both sexes. The opening chiming notes of ‘Crisis’ send the crowd surging towards the front as vocalist George Pettit’s characteristic screams erupt from the cavernous stage, the crowd now a writhing mass of crushed bodies. As the song reaches the chorus Dallas Green’s vocals are pretty much drowned out by the baying crowd. ‘Get Fighted’ is the perfect follower, a song about fashion and hairstyles being irrelevant and having a good time taking precedent. ‘Waterwings’ from their 2001 debut album receives a raucous response even though a vast majority of the crowd would still have been a few years off their teens when it was released. ‘Old Crows’ has the audience pogoing along to the bouncy punk riff, the chorus of “We are not the kids we used to be” very much echoing with the crowd and the teenage years that Alexisonfire provided the soundtrack to. ‘Control’ has the crowd replicating every nuance of Dallas Green’s impossibly sumptuous voice and is the track that perhaps best showcases the band’s masterful use of dynamics that made their 2004 album Watch Out! so brilliant. The slow burning intro to ‘You Burn First’ has the audience resembling a coiled spring, exploding as George Pettit’s screams signal the audience to go completely batshit, his now thirty year old frame projecting his grating scream just as fervently as he did ten years ago. ‘We Are The Sound’s’ call and response interlude appears deafening but this seems tame compared to ‘This Could Be Anywhere In The World’ which has every member of the five thousand strong audience sing and scream back every single word of the song that became a global hit. ‘Dog’s Blood’ gives a glimpse of the direction the band would have headed in, its more experimental leanings still retaining the classic Alexis clean vocal and screaming dynamic. ‘Accept Crime’ shines a light on the band’s more outspoken and political output, advocating free speech and freedom of expression by declaring “We will be free/ To use our bodies as we please”. ‘Boiled Frogs’ and ‘Drunks, Lovers, Sinners & Saints’ boast some of the band’s biggest choruses and reiterates why Crisis was such a successful album. ‘Charlie Sheen vs Henry Rollins’ is the surprise of the night, a slightly obscure track that draws a blank with some but for those in the know it is a welcome surprise. Pettit takes to the organ for the relatively slow paced ‘The Northern’ with Dallas’ voice soaring and showing no signs of fatigue after twenty songs. ‘Accidents’ is greeted like an anthem, the sweaty throng throwing their weary bodies around the various pits whilst the chorus and “whoahhhs” of the interlude are shouted back at the band by hoarse vocals chords. Returning to the stage after the inevitable encore, the slow-paced off-kilter rhythms of ‘Rough Hands’ give way to the expansive punk rock of ‘Young Cardinals’, giving the more rowdy fans a last chance to throw their sweaty bodies into each other. A sprawling rendition of ‘Happiness By The Kilowatt’ ends the show in positively epic fashion. The song falls and rises in several crescendos, with Dallas’ voice never faltering before the song ends in a piercing wail of feedback.

Sure, the band could have benefitted from a little more rehearsal but this is cynical nit-picking in an otherwise perfect performance from a band that helped define modern heavy music as we now know it. I think it is fair to say, that no one leaves Brixton Academy with a shred of disappointment.

Old Flings – Spite

Old Flings came into existence in late 2010 as an outlet for Matt Evans (Just Die!, Megahurtz) to create full songs out of the more subdued and personal acoustic songs he had been writing for the year previous. To lend a helping hand, Evans called upon bassist Jordan Luff (ex-Just Die!) and drummer Travis Hollifield (ex-Nights On Fire) and the first Old Fings line up was formed. After a period touring, mostly up the US East Coast, Hollifield made his escape into the world of big rig trucking and he was replaced by drummer Phil Hickey (Collapse). After releasing a first demo in late 2011, the band have followed it up with their first full-length, Spite. The band describes their music as “90s-era Revelation Records meets Gin Blossoms meets Smashing Pumpkins meets Hum meets Samiam”, and while comparing several different bands doesn’t help conjure up a sound very well, the description is largely accurate. If forced to describe the sound in a combination of genres, it would have to be something along the lines of melodic hardcore combined with a bit of alt rock and power pop anthems.

Opening track “TBC” gives the album a lively, bouncing start. The drum and guitar provides a relatively gentle, funky rhythm with some nice vocal and instrumental transitions into the chorus. The production sounds a little rough, but purposefully so, as if every corner and edge doesn’t have to be smoothed over and why should it be? One thing to note straight away is the promise of 30 second or so instrumental, which is catchy enough to make the soberest of crowds dance around like idiots. “Merry Go Round” has a similar sound, perhaps a little less bass heavy with a more prominent and consistent drum beat, but like TBC it starts off livelier than the rest of the song follows. The jazzy guitar and bass combined with Evans’ more drawl vocals is reminiscent of a Don Broco(ish) sound.

Third song “Senseless” has a strong guitar dominated intro, with the song juxtaposing the chirpy riffs against more gloomy vocals. The repetitiveness of the same chords being repeated throughout can seem to become a little monotonous despite head-nodding, foot-tapping beat, but this is shattered with another interruption by a nice guitar solo which makes me thankful that Evans decided to inject some electricity into what were formerly acoustic tracks. The intro to “Grip” lures the listener in with mellow bassline, but whether it is Evans’ glum vocals or the similar structure that most of the songs have, nothing really makes this stand out from the rest.

“The only things I care about in this goddamn life are me and my drums and you.” The quote by Watts from the 80’s teen romance Some Kind of Wonderful kicks off “Apathetic” which unlike the name suggests is quite an energetic song. The name of the song instead refers to the subject matter, as you probably expect, with Evans asking whoever the song is aimed at “It seems you’d rather cry than strive, are you already dead inside?” The song gives pride of position to a larger selection of drumming prowess than any of the previous tracks, or any that follow, with several positive riffs.

The album as a whole seems very late 80s/early 90s in both sound and influences. Drawing on youthful experiences isn’t necessarily a bad thing though and is probably to be expected considering how most of the songs started out as personal acoustic numbers thought up by Evans. Altogether the album is a solid release, but it would benefit from a little more variety. All songs seem to be cut out of a common framework and Evans’ vocals can become a tad melancholy and overbearing at times. That said, it is a good album and for fans of The Samiam and Texas Is the Reason it’s a must buy.

3.5 out of 5 high fives!

Jowls – Cursed

What do you get if you take the restless scathing noise of the Jesus Lizard; replace David Yow’s muffled howls with throat shredding screams and inject this with enough raw ferocity to make Roy Keane a bit scared? Quite simply, the answer is Jowls. Despite being a trio, the Michigan based band spew forth a particularly aggressive and grating form of abrasive hardcore-based catharsis. If you are of a weak disposition and like your music all twee and neatly served up than you’d better make sure you never step within a hundred yards of this record for fear that after getting an aural whiff of its, at times, startling intensity- you may require counselling afterwards. Their debut mini album Cursed is comprised of six tracks of pure unbridled anger and is propelled by a driving rhythm section and a rather surprising understanding of the power of dynamics.

Greeting the listener in the first seconds of opener ‘Ruins’ are the raw unaccompanied screams of guitarist Ryan whose vocal chords produce a scream so piercing and biting it is almost horrifying in its intensity. Scuzzy, double-tracked guitars rattle along like The Jesus Lizard minus the jazzy intuitions. Feedback smothers the opening drumbeat to ‘Shamewalker’, a track the builds in intensity, ending in a hellish freakout. What is also made clear is that this isn’t just sixteen minutes of relentless thrashy noise. When the band do reign the aggression back in, they do so with expertise; the three members increasing the tension like a coiled spring that threatens to explode at any given moment. A stark drumbeat opens ‘Monotoned’, soon joined by a slinking bass line before the grating guitar once again joins the fray and Jowls’ expertly manipulated controlled-chaos is unleashed. The feedback filled outro holds similar noisey post-hardcore leaning as 90’s underground noise lovers Unwound and even 80’s legends Big Black. Lasting little over a minute is ‘Sway Slow’, a breakneck rattling hardcore track that gives drummer Jeff a chance to show off his chops as the band’s dissonant furore is over before you can fully comprehend what is happening. ‘Indian Giver’ hits hard, coming across like Jesus Lizard just after they’ve had a big line of coke as it jerks and writhes towards oblivion. Its central riff is a pummelling force of nature, painfully simple, yet devilishly powerful. Final track ‘Long-winded’ shows Jowls possessing a slight progressive intuition. Not content with ending the record in another two minute torrent of unrelenting anger, they instead create a song that puts emphasis on their accomplished dynamic ability. More than once they bring the song down to a restrained simmer before cleverly unleashing their anger in a hail of shrill screams and caustic noise, even permitting hints of melody to permeate the otherwise discordant guitar.

What instils this record with added kudos is the group’s ability to mould their 90’s throwbacks into thoroughly modern sounding compositions. At times they veer towards the rewired hardcore sounds of the recent “Wave” bands such as La Dispute or Touché Amoré, but their harsh hardcore lies in no particular camp. Instead, the band seem to skirt around the edges of definable sub-sub-genres, pinching segments of sounds from various underground spheres such as noise rock and (real) screamo and throwing them into their uncompromising musical mixing bowl. If you like music that sounds like a full scale assault on the ears than Jowls are for you. Their modern take on a style of underground rock now surpassing its second decade in existence always feels fresh and much more importantly, is delivered with such passion and volatility that it feels rightly vital.

4.5 out of 5 high fives!

Happy Holidays!

Hello!

First of all, thank you SO much, every single one of you for continuing to read this. Thanks for sticking with us. It’s been four long years since TBO started now, and it’s been a blast the whole way through. We’ve got some pretty rad stuff planned for next year (including that whole redevelop I’ve been attempting for the past six months) so stay tuned.

Secondly, there’s no updates for the next week – taking a brief hiatus until the 14th. Stay classy!

xoxo – Ripper

Converge – Brighton Concorde 2, 01/12/12

Tonight the temperature on a winter Sunday night is straggling the minuses but inside the seafront confines of Brighton’s finest venue, the Concorde 2, things are about to get very sweaty. Marking their return to the venue on the back of their startlingly good new album All We Love We Leave Behind, Converge bring three diverse but no less extreme bands to warm the frozen crowd.

First on is Italy’s The Secret, a four headed beast of a band who play something akin to black metal interspersed with Sabbath riffs covered in a crust some twelve inches thick. Approval is shown through an increasing amount of devil horn salutes and raised pints, commending the band’s ability to switch between blastbeats and sludge riffs in a manner not unlike tonight’s headliners.

A Storm Of Light rely on atmospherics rather than brute force to communicate their sprawling, multi visual, sludgey post-rock compositions. A film collage, projected behind the band, shows images of warfare, atomic bombs and riots, providing the ideal backdrop for the ear-splitting cacophony that envelops the crowd in an inescapable wall of pure noise.

The front rows who await Touche Amore are made up almost exclusively of teenagers, proving the bands popularity with the young Tumblr-savvy crowd. As the band plays the first few warm chords of ‘~’ the venue suddenly explodes into life with the soul baring lyrics being screamed back at frontman Jeremy with aplomb. Always emphasising brevity over longevity, the band rattle through songs in quick succession, covering most of 2011’s acclaimed Parting The Sea Before The Brightness And Me as well as a number from their debut …To The Beat Of A Dead Horse. A new song entitled ‘Gravity’ gives the first indication of the bands future direction, a track where ideas are allowed to develop and flourish into the band’s longest song to date.

As the crowd forms in front of the stage, a distinct smell of stale sweat, beer and marijuana emits from the gaggle of metalheads, hardcore kids and other down and outs who have gathered to watch the most influential extreme bands of recent times. Converge take to the stage to little fanfare, no backing track or elaborate entrance. Vocalist Jacob Bannon bluntly states “we’re ready to play” and they launch headfirst into ‘Concubine’ (probably the most extreme seventy-nine seconds of music ever written); the crowd quite literally goes wild for their blastbeat infected hardcore. Driving bass and drums signals the intro to ‘Dark Horse’, a track that possesses much of the unstoppable kinetic energy of a speeding train. The masses at the front exercise their demons in all manner of violent gestures. From some extremely vicious headbanging and air punching to the flailing throng in the pit, the floor is soon covered in puddles of sweat and splattered with blood fallen from smashed noses. ‘Aimless Arrow’ and ‘All We Love We Leave Behind’ represent the new album with the crowd reacting to the new songs like they were old favourites. ‘No Light Escapes’ from the recent split seven inch with Napalm Death spurts a fifty second long tirade of aggression. Guitarist Kurt Ballou is every bit the virtuosic guitarist, switching from caustic breakdowns on ‘Axe To Fall’, to two finger tapping and relentless chugging whilst Nate Newton’s driving bass and booming vocals dominate ‘Worms Will Feed’. Converge’s backbone- Ben Koller, provides some of the most devilishly difficult yet undeniably solid drumming in heavy music. As the band leave the stage the crowd are still thirsting for more aural brutality and the band oblige readily with an encore of ‘First Light/ Last Light’ from You Fail Me. The closing schizophrenic breakdown sees the bruised and battered crowd losing their shit for a final time. As the house lights come on, the state of the crowd speaks volumes about the intensity of tonight’s show. The bloodied, sweat-covered throng certainly got what they came for- a masterful performance by one of the most uncompromising bands on the planet.