Robyn Writes

We’ve got some new reviewers – say hi!

Hey there, sports fans!

I just wanted to take the time to introduce the latest members of the TwoBeatsOff team. Our latest additions are George, Colin and Rosalia. They’re writing reviews for the site but also have some pretty exciting projects of their own. If you want to find out more about them, then there’s a little bit about each of them on our “authors” page. We’re very excited to have them on the team, and Rosalia and George have already submitted articles for your pleasure.

With some new blood here to help out, we’re hopefully going to be able to do a lot more with the site. I’m currently working on a new build along with Kitteh, and we’re hoping to get some more video content as well as features alongside our reviews, especially now that we have more time on our hands.

Thanks a bunch for continuing to support the site, and we’ll have more exciting stuff for you soon.

xoxo – Ripper

PS: when you search “punk rock beards”, our site is one of the first things to come up. That is all I ever dreamed of.

As We Sink – Ventures [EP]

Ventures is the latest four track release from southern UK punks As We Sink. Despite only being their second recorded release the production is perfectly raw yet warm thanks to ex Ghost of a Thousand guitarist turned producer Jag Jago. On the face of it, As We Sink play A Wilhelm Scream-esque style of breakneck punk rock, albeit with less technicality. Opening track Bitter Teeth makes no hesitation in unleashing great punk riffs and blistering drums that instantly brings to mind Make Do And Mend through similar melodies and song structure. Drifter eases the listener in with a building drum intro that breaks into fast paced riffs and gang vocals that recur throughout the E.P. Third track and highlight of the album Aching Hands, Itching Feet begins with a slow intro based around a simple yet amazing clean guitar riff. As the song explodes into an anthemic chorus it is evident that these songs were written for sing-alongs in sweaty punk clubs. Closer, Most Important Days, ends the record on a high, in a mass of raspy gang vocals that demand crowd participation.

The band will appear to some to be an amalgamation of the current US East Coast hardcore scene that has bred such bands as the aforementioned Make Do And Mend, who As We Sink bear an uncanny likeness with. Even so, this is a solid starting point for the band. They already have the musicianship and ability to write powerful sing-alongs but to really make a name for themselves the band need to concentrate on carving out their own distinct sound, rather than simply being a blend of other similar sounding bands. As We Sink are not re-inventing the wheel by any means, but what they lack in originality they more than make up for in overt passion, which oozes from every pore of their music.

4 out of 5 high fives!

Caretaker – Providence

Caretaker, from first listen, sound like they had a good influence from Norma Jean, which puts them along the post-hardcore genre. However, they also have this melodic sound to them, with an atmosphere that can be both creepy and upbeat. This puts them in a class of their own, which is something not seen often.

The songs on this album vary from under three minutes to over thirteen minutes, and while that can turn away a good deal of people, Caretaker have done an excellent job of pulling you in with their music. You just don’t realize that thirteen minutes have gone by. The band also put emphasis on their bass, which other bands in the post-hardcore scene fail to do, and they do it excellently. If anyone has listened to Rage Against the Machine, they know that that band would be nothing without their bass – Caretaker are similar. The opening to their track Martinet is a great example; the opening bass groove draws you in, grabs you, and holds you for the duration of the album.

Some listeners may be concerned that the vocals don’t seem to be focused. I think that’s great, because the instrumentals do such a great job of getting you to bob your head, tap your feet, sometimes even bang your head, that it doesn’t exactly make a huge impact. The other thing is that the two instrumental tracks are much weaker than the rest, and the intro to the album, Thousand Yard Stare, is a rather repetitive piece that seemingly doesn’t belong. The second, Providence, is a much better piece, though it would be much better off being the intro section to the following track on the album.

Even including those small flaws, Caretaker are amazing at what they do. Sure, their music may not be complex or difficult to play, but they do an excellent job of changing moods within songs, and pulling you in so that you end up daydreaming in a wonderland. One moment could be groovy with the bass, and a very well pulled off transition into something melodic or heavy will have you drawn in even more. The very last track of the album, The Upper Air, finishes off the album with a thirteen minute epic that features everything. There’s mood and atmosphere changes, alongside well executed transitions, bass grooves and soft guitar interludes. It would be petty of me to simply say the best song on the album, but the track really does do everything well and you find yourself so into the song, you don’t feel like those thirteen minutes are dragged out at all. The same can be said for their other lengthy ones – they’re just so well done.

Fans of the early post-hardcore scene will enjoy this. People who are turned away by the scream-type vocals seen in bands like Eyes Set to Kill and early Norma Jean might not be a fan, but those who enjoy that trance-like feeling while listening to their music will have a hard time finding a better album than this to do so, and I envy anyone who is able to catch these guys live.

4 out of 5 high fives!

Shout out: Full AFI sets on Youtube!

Well, flicking through Youtube, I noticed a sweet performance of AFI doing Malleus Maleficarum that I’d never seen before. THEN I stumbled across this beauty:

The sound quality isn’t amazing, but to see AFI performing like that, before Sing The Sorrow, made my day. And so I had to share. I’m not sure who to credit the video to, but it was uploaded by fatalposition. Show them some love.

xoxo – Ripper

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!