Hey kids! Do you like having a really bad time? Well, meth. are here to grind your face right down into the dirtiest pit of despair (or possibly drag you down into the pit of despair they already found themselves in). And they look like such a carefree bunch in their promo photos!Continue reading
Tag Archives: Screamo
ALBUM REVIEW: Dreamwell – In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You
With their debut album, Modern Grotesque, Dreamwell certainly hit the ground running, full of cathartic, screamo energy that most bands several years into their career wish they could muster. It was enough that the band even got picked up by Prosthetic Records, looking at Dreamwell to capture lightning in a bottle twice with their sophomore effort, In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You.
EP REVIEW: .GIFFROMGOD – Digital Red
Signed to Los Angeles-based Prosthetic Records (Yatra, ACxDC, Pupil Slicer, Vile Creature) Richmond, Virginia six-piece .GIFFROMGOD bring you their latest release, an EP by the name of Digital Red. It sees the band’s first recorded output since 2019’s full-length debut Approximation of a Human.
ALBUM REVIEW: Stormo – Endocannibalismo
“Understanding death as transformation could probably lead us to a better world, ecologically and socially speaking” says Stormo frontman; Luca Rocca. Over the previous year, Stormo have been causing chaos in their live shows in Europe, culminating with the band signing to Prosthetic Records at the end of 2022. With an album name like Endocannibalismo (The tribal act of eating relatives as a form of mourning), there’s only really one type of music that would be expected of the four-piece: chaotic & heavy. Stormo delivers on that in all areas.
ALBUM REVIEW: Vexes – Imagine What We Could Destroy – If Only Given Time
Hailing from New Jersey and rising from the ashes of East Coast bands including Vessl and A Life Once Lost, Vexes released their debut album Ancient Geometry in 2018, which saw strong comparisons with Deftones and a clear influence of the seminal band in their work. Fast forward five years and Vexes are following up with Imagine What We Could Destroy /// If Only Given Time (Self-Released) their sophomore double album.
ALBUM REVIEW: Portrayal of Guilt – We Are Always Alone
Who decided to file Portrayal of Guilt under Screamo? Where should we file them? I don’t know, that’s for folks who spend their time and energy in the endless heavy music genre debates and on websites like Encyclopaedia Metallum to decide. You know, the type of people that will insist that Annihilator isn’t a Thrash band as they really fall under Speed Metal. They are truly doing the Lord’s work. But to slap the screamo tag on Portrayal of Guilt, particularly on We Are Always Alone (Closed Casket Activities) seems a bit simplistic.
ALBUM REVIEW: Portrayal of Guilt – Suffering is a Gift
Yes, this is a review for Portrayal of Guilt’s Suffering is a Gift (Closed Casket Activities) and believe me we’ll get to it in a bit, but who the fuck tried to sell this to me as Screamo? Honestly, screamo? These Austinite’s aren’t looking to settle for some re-warmed Metalcore riffs and lofty choruses so we can leave that outdated subgenre in the circular file. The riffs and blast beats on Suffering is a Gift are eager for dust and blood. Continue reading
WRISTMEETRAZOR – Misery Never Forgets
It is pretty commonplace for the draw of music, especially heavy or extreme music, to be an integral part of the relationship that we have with hardship and the difficulties of life and of mental health. We more than likely have been through or know someone who has been through utter lows of mental health and perhaps have even considered or attempted suicide.Continue reading
Taste Of Chaos Festival: Live At San Manuel Amphitheater
How do you take a pretty kickass tour and make it more awesome? Make the last date of tour an all day festival at one of the best venues in California. The fully fledged Rockstar Energy Drink Taste of Chaos Festival assembled on a hot Saturday in mid-summer at The San Manuel Amphitheater, in the thick of a concert tour and festival season packed with options. Fans still gathered in droves for a show in which more than half of the bands could have headlined and sold out their own tours easily. Although tons of cool food trucks, countless craft beer options, and a carnival type atmosphere helped make it a fun day out, it comes back to being all about the music. It’s a testament to the organizers who put this bill together, but there seemed to be many heads in the venue for each band, all screaming along with every word. For fans of a certain age, this event was the holy grail of millennial teen angst and passion. Dashboard Confessional and Taking Back Sunday are two of the signpost bands of that era, and coupled with The Starting Line, Saosin featuring Anthony Green, Senses Fail and The Early November on the bill might be just too much for the hearts of early 2000s heartstrings to take. Add in 90s post-hardcore kings Quicksand, The Get Up Kids, Reggie And the Full Effect and many more, and you have an incredible day of live music. Captured for Ghost Cult by Melina Dellamarggio of Melina D Photography in her final assignment before passing away in August, you get sense of the spirit these bands still embody, of music that still matters, and a mutual love shared by fans of all kinds.
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Valleys – Experiment One: Asylum
I had been listening to up and coming North Carolina based prog metallers Valleys and to review their ambitious début full-length new album, playing Experiment One: Asylum on a loop and making my notes as I usually do before putting fingers on keys. Then tragedy struck as Valleys co-frontman of Mikey Clements was killed just a week before the release in a tragic accident. Bravely the band is moving forward, treating the release of the album and future gigs as a tribute to their fallen friend.
Genre mashing used to be out of the ordinary in music, and now as a concession to music fans’ fickle tastes and attention spans, it is the norm. Valleys call themselves progressive metal, and they are a modern prog band. But in addition to sounds inspired by bands like Coheed and Cambria, Tesseract, and Protest The Hero; they also blend in electronics, deathcore and other stuff in the mix. It works well, producing solid songs, and not being too all over the place that they lack cohesion. They also display some high-level muscianship, which is needed to pull off these type of songs in the first place.
More impressive, Experiment One: Asylum is a concept album about suffering from schizophrenia/BPD/multi-personality disorder and a personal descent as a result of it. In this time in our world when people are quick to dismiss and stigmatize mental illness, this is very topical. The album opens up with several strong songs in a row with ‘A Tension’, ‘Unraveling’ and ‘Desperate Me’. Energetic riffs, off-time meters, and stop/start tempos abound and the tracks get even better on repeated listens. ‘Take Me Home’ is the high point of the album, and will call to mind Veil of Maya and Linkin Park, mixing up the brutal gutturals with clean lines traded between Clements and Jayson Mitchell. This band can play brutal, but their ability to write the a super catchy chorus is something to make note of, possibly leading them to great heights someday. Closer ‘The Death Of Me’ is also a very impressive tune.
Hopefully Valleys are just getting started on their path and can find a away through this hardship and pain to keep going. It seems like Experiment One: Asylum is exactly the medicine they might need right now.
7.0/10
KEITH CHACHKES
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