Best of 2008: #6. Transistor Transistor - Ruined Lives

I've spoken at length about Transistor Transistor before, so I'll try and keep this relatively short and frame my opinion of this album in regards to the former. Ruined Lives is the second album by the east-coast hardcore stalwarts, and it continues the pattern of abrasively destructive rock music as set out by their phenomenal debut, Erase All Names and Likenesses. In fact, there isn't a lot of change on display here, and this can be taken a number of ways. On the one hand, when your formula already makes you stand out as a relatively unique band in an oft-stagnant genre, then change really isn't necessary, especially when the results are as good as this. Indeed, by my count, Erase All Names and Likenesses is a modern hardcore classic, an album which was beautifully captivating in its depiction of cynicism, anger and the apathy that follows.

Unfortunately, yet also rather expectedly, Ruined Lives doesn't quite live up to the quality of the group's debut; it feels less coordinated, more like a collection of songs than a fully-realized album. Gone is the overwhelming and all-encompassing sense of pessimism as seen in the suffocating misanthropy of tracks like "Power Chord Academy", and in its place is a kind of nihilistic party metal sheen that comes through on a few of the earlier songs. Now this isn't a full abandonment of the vivid frustration of Erase All Names and Likenesses - "Celluloid Rats", for one, is a delightfully angsty and vicious attack on social stasis - just the inclusion of a few songs that don't quite fit the mold, which as a result make the album feel a bit more uneven.

But please don't take any of this as indication of a sophomore slump. There are plenty of highlights here: "Diet of Worms" is a fantastic song that brings with it all the caged frustration that has come to be expected of Transistor Transistor. "Pillar of Salt" is a plodding, noisy behemoth, its rallying cry a distinctly jagged and relentless bark of "I hope I'll rot". "Irreversible" breaks to a sprint with reckless speed, the guitars dancing and swerving to form an all-out blitzkrieg on the senses as the song, against all odds, gets louder and more desperate as it moves to a devastating climax. No, this is nothing close to a sophomore slump; Ruined Lives sparkles with all the exasperated fury of a desperate youth parade, letting up only momentarily for periods of quiet reflection. If you've never heard Transistor Transistor before, then this is a great, if not quite spectacular place to start.

my apathy and I get along just fine

Best of 2008: #10. Aussitot Mort - Montuenga

Aussitot Mort are a French screamo band who sound something like a cross between Daitro and Isis, taking a very dense and heavy approach to their music that differentiates them from their more balleyhooed countrymen. Montuenga is Aussitot Mort's first full-length album, following up on the critical success of the group's demo and 6 Songs EP.

The album opens with the sludgy and forceful "Mort Mort Mort", which plods along at metallic levels of heaviness, introducing the listener to the Aussitot Mort philosophy that it's better to be loud than fast. The guitars trudge along with high authority, dominating the pace as the drummer wails away in the background. Also intriguing is the incorporation of a violin among the mass of the guitars, adding to the desolate feel of the song. "Une Heure Plus Tard" shakes off some of the heaviness of the former song, with the bass driving much of the action as the guitars smoothly and sharply dance in and out of the mix. This song shows a more accessible Aussitot Mort, and while the song still remains blindingly heavy at points, it also exhibits and emphasizes some stellar guitarwork that can be easily enjoyed. The next track, "..." serves mostly as a break in the album, not even being afforded the importance of a name. It is a minimalist song that features little more than a reverb-drenched guitar riff surrounded by ominous white noise. "Huit" follows, and it is a song very much reminiscent of "Une Heure Plus Tard". The song features some fantastically catchy guitar work, with the contrast between the spiraling, dissociative guitar licks and the more basal sounds that follow giving the feel of a drug-induced fervor and the eventual comedown.

"Le Kid de la Plage" starts with a delicate acoustic guitar and a high-pitched bell sound that occurs throughout most of the song, before rising in tone and intensity to more familiar levels. It then breaks, with the song being lead forward by the same forceful drumming patterns that occur throughout and some memorable group chanting. This is possibly the most experimental song on the album, especially during the outro, showing Aussitot Mort's progressive attitude through numerous guitar effects and the addition of new instruments into the mix. "On a qu'a se dire qu'on s'en" closes the album, showing the same metal-inspired heaviness and auspicious tinkering that is displayed throughout.

(An aside: I haven't talked much about the vocals on this album, and that is because Montuenga has much less emphasis on vocals than on the group's demo, occasionally resorting to straight-up instrumentals, which is apparently due to the fact that the band parted ways with their original vocalist some time after recording their demo. So, yeah. Just something I learned today.)

On their first album, Aussitot Mort take the lumbering density of post-metal, add in some spectacularly catchy and inventive guitar riffs with some powerfully frantic drumwork, and string it all together in impressive fashion. Montuenga is a fantastic and extremely promising album, managing to be heavy yet delicate at times, dense yet sparse, experimental yet accessible. If nothing else, this should place Aussitot Mort next to Daitro and Sed Non Satiata as one of the best and most progressive progenitors of European screamo. But hopefully, their eclectically heavy sound will help them find favour outside of that traditionally narrow niche, as an album like this deserves all the praise it can get.

Dear Diary: Today I successfully used the phrase "balleyhooed" in a sentence. I don't think I've ever been happier.

Best of 2008: #14. Off Minor - Some Blood

The band is offering the album for as much as you're willing to pay here.

I’ve never been a big Off Minor fan. I’ve seen people rave over the raw intensity of The Heat Death of the Universe, and while I can agree that both of those descriptors are accurate, it just doesn’t do anything for me. My complaints for Off Minor go along the same line as my objections to Ampere: the band is too chaotic, too unwieldy, and while I can objectively say that what they’re doing instrumentally is highly impressive, it rarely comes together in a way that manages to be accessible and interesting (“Staring Down the Barrel of Limited Options” being a noticeable exception). Trying to latch onto a melody in the cacophonous, almost jazz-like progression Off Minor plays in can be difficult, so as to render any attempt to do so ultimately obscured by the band’s own free-flowing nature. On Some Blood, Off Minor doesn’t exactly change this style, but they do manage to succeed regardless with what has to be their most approachable release yet, which is a major plus for anyone (i.e. me) who had trouble getting into them before.

Some Blood opens with the chaotic and noisy "Neologist", an intriguing track that features some interesting guitar effects and fantastic drumming (as does the entire album). The album continues much through the same pattern that Off Minor has made their trademark, with blusterous instrumental explosions followed by minimalist breaks, all of it delivered with passion and a willful sense of discordance. "Everything Explicit" takes the traditionally short song-lengths of Off Minor's canon and spreads the group's free form style over six minutes of blistering furor, even including the occasional harmonic reprieve. But this is nothing compared to the progressiveness of the album's final song, "Practice Absence". Running nearly eight minutes in length, this song takes the form of something of a monotone duet between a male and female vocalist, both drolly chanting their lines as the guitar and drums slowly increase in pace, eventually leading to a fiery and cathartic finish. The female vocals are especially beautiful, painting the image of a muted tragedy as the cry of "at the end of all things" echoes throughout the blank canvas. At the song's climactic finish, as the guitars rupture and a thunderous din envelops the former quiet, an intensity is created that is rarely matched. That something so fierce could also be so beautiful...

what's best left unsaid?

Best of 2008: #15. Daitro/Sed Non Satiata Split

Note: Due to the density of albums being presented over the upcoming weeks, I won't be posting links with them. If you want a link for any of the albums shown, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

While this was originally released in France late last year, it got a US release earlier in 2008, so we'll count it as such. This split sees a collaboration between two of the biggest (and therefore best) hardcore bands not only in France but throughout Europe, and the result more than lives up to the expectations created.

On their side of the split, Sed Non Satiata brings to the forefront four exquisitely crafted songs of desolation and dismay. The group eschews traditional punk speed for a more measured, brooding approach, carefully constructing their songs without losing sight of the underlying melodies that guide them. In this sense, they can be compared to a post-rock band in the way they utilize the quiet/loud spectrum, carefully changing and adding harmonies as they progress. While both Sed Non Satiata and Daitro blend elements of post-rock into their attack, Sed Non Satiata do it more often and more successfully, building delicate instrumental pieces around the emotional and forceful singing of their vocalist, a near-perfect blend of aggression and harmony.

Sed Non Satiata also develop mood throughout their songs in a very effective manner befitting of post-rock. "Des Masques" for example opens with a slow, coarsing wave of feedback as the guitars lag in, each individual element slowly added to the song as an ominous precursor of whats to come. There are also many instrumental breaks on display, such as in the middle of "Des Ruines", wherein guitar lines are strewn along in a noisy and almost artless fashion so as to suggest the isolation of the song's title.

On Daitro's side of the split, similar tendencies are shown in regards to their instrumentalism. On "De L'Eau Coule Sous Les Ponts", the guitar is relegated to the background for most of the song, content to strum along an array of high pitches and melodies with the bass and drums leading the song's progression. "Un Fleau Pour Un Autre" also follows the same pattern as mitigated by Sed Non Satiata, building up in intensity over four minutes before the vocals kick in, sounding far wilder than the occasionally soothing effort offered on the other side of the split. But while Daitro and Sed Non Satiata are oft-compared bands and rightfully so, due to their geographic location, style of music, and tendency to tour together, they do differentiate from one another at times. Daitro, unlike Sed Non Satiata, tend to revert to more traditional punk forms of progression at times, without the focus on intricacy and melody. "Nous Ne Participons Pas Tous A La Meme Utopie" is an example of this, and it shows a stark contrast to the rest of the songs on the split, developing as an up-tempo track, the kind of which is more often associated with screamo.

This is not only the best split effort of the year, but one of the rare instances in which a full-length split reaches a level of quality at which it can be regarded as a wholly congruent album. And yet, coming from Sed Non Satiata and Daitro, two supremely talented bands with track records of doing just that, it's really no surprise. Both sides are impressively strong, with the Sed Non Satiata side being a notch or so better. There is no wide barrier between either side of the split, with only incidental details and inclinations separating the songs as delivered by each band. As such, this feels like a concentrated effort, an intense and deeply intricate work of hardcore that resonates throughout.

The Best Albums of 2008: From #30 to #21 (and then eventually to #1)

Now that Christmas is over, and now that no one still cares, I figured it was as good a time as any to post my obligatory Best Albums of 2008 list. Over the next few days/weeks/however long I choose to draw this out for, I'll be counting down the 20 best albums released in the past year with an individual post containing a mini-review pertaining to each. But first, and in the interest of covering as much ground as possible, I'll first count down the top ten albums that didn't make the cut, as well as the most disappointing albums of the year and the best non-full length releases.

Note: Due to the density of albums here, I won't be posting links with them. If you want a link for any of the albums seen here, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Biggest Disappointments:

It's worth noting that I don't consider any of the following albums bad, merely disappointing for one reason or another, be it due to hype or my own personal expectations.


Cynic - Traced in Air

I'm probably alone in this one, but I don't really care. After the paradigm-shifting record that was Focus, this just feels empty by comparison.


Foxy Shazam - Introducing...

After the madcap zaniness of The Flamingo Trigger, it was disappointing to see the Cincinnati natives move away from their earlier hardcore-leaning sounds to more keyboard-focused music. And yet, on songs like "Ghost Animals" and "Introducing Foxy", the focus works incredibly well, coming off like piano rock on acid. So what's the problem? While half of this album sounds like the ravings of a demented Billy Joel (I mean this as a compliment), the other half falters, coming off as anywhere from contrived to just plain irritating.


Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life

There was a lot of good hardcore music released this year. This wasn't even in my top ten.


Murder By Death - Red of Tooth and Claw

With their fourth album, Murder By Death stick with the Old West stylings and story-telling motifs that have made past releases so strong, but forget to include enough musical variety to keep it interesting. The album peaks after the first song ("Coming Home"), and the song quality, not to mention the quality of singer Adam Turla's incessant Johnny Cash impersonation/homage, goes downhill from there.


Subtle - ExitingARM

Pitchfork called this "Subtle's pop album", and as far as I'm concerned, that's a pretty accurate descriptor. Unlike Pitchfork however, I'm not sure I can consider this a positive development. ExitingARM sees Subtle move away from the already estranged hip-hop they originated with, further showcasing the side of the group that likes swirling melodies and electronic sounds. The idea is sound, considering this was never a group to confine themselves within conventions anyway, but there are a few problems in the execution. For one, there is an unnecessary level of polish on display in places, occasionally obscuring the voice of its most distinctive vocalist, Dose One (it almost feels like he's on auto-tune). Subtle still manages to pull off a strong pop song on occasion, but they do so with a lower rate of success than before, making long-time fans more likely to just listen to A New White for their fix.

Best Extended Plays (EP's, Splits, etc.)


65daysofstatic - The Distant And Mechanised Glow Of Eastern European Dance Parties

65daysofstatic are post-rock band from the United Kingdom, known primarily for their blending of electronic influences with guitar-heavy build-ups and crescendos. But on The Distant and Mechanised Glow of Eastern European Dance Parties, the group shows off their electronica influences, creating a collection of songs that sounds like a house mix at a high-scale rave. The result is a swirling, infectious concoction that stands up to, and possibly surpasses anything else 65daysofstatic has done. Here's hoping that the dance influences remain apparent on their next release.


Andrew Jackson Jihad - Only God Can Judge Me

This will get its own post soon. These guys were one of my favourite discoveries from this year.


BATS - Cruel Sea Scientist

See Here.


Envy/Jesu Split

This is actually more than long enough to qualify as a full-length, but I'm putting it here so that I can give it its proper due. With Envy, by now you know what you're getting, so you either like it or don't, but Jesu's side features some of Justin Broadrick's best work this side of Godflesh. Broadrick's dense, lengthy, metal-tinged shoegaze is at its strongest here, making this the best of Envy's many EP releases from the past year.


Fire Team Charlie - ...And Everything Will Be Undone 10"

Solid band reminiscent of Daniel Striped Tiger makes intricate and noisy emotive post-hardcore.


The Gaslight Anthem - Senor and the Queen

In the aftermath of The '59 Sound, I had almost forgot about this. These four songs, totaling just over eleven minutes in all, act as the stopgap between the band's first and second albums, with songs like "Say I Won't (Recognize)" showing where they've been and "Wherefore Art Thou, Elvis?" signifying where they were going.


The Mountain Goats - Satanic Messiah

Fantastic free release courtesy of John Darnielle. More on him later.


Red Sparowes - Aphorisms

On this EP, the Red Sparowes create guitar-driven post-rock that burn with intensity. The climaxes are booming, the build-ups are superb, and the song titles are never longer than twelve words, all of which suggests that the band is headed in the right direction. Here's hoping that their next album is the one to finally capture this group's massive potential.


Wingnut Dishwashers Union/James K. Polk and the Family of Friends Split 7"

James K. Polk’s side is delicate folk music which ends up marred by lyrics that make the Andrew Jackson Jihad look like Paul Baribeau, a juxtaposition which makes their two songs very hard to get into. But they're ultimately irrelevant to my enjoyment of this split, because the other side of the split features some of Pat the Bunny’s best work yet. “Free and Alone” is a song about the loneliness and weariness that results from the singer’s state of constant travel, and “Fuck Shit Up (Wha-Na-Na)” is a song that almost manages to be beautiful in spite of its self, showcasing the introspective punk ethos that Wingnut Dishwashers Union exemplifies so perfectly.

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And now, the best albums of the year, starting with #30.


30. United Nations - United Nations

I am not a fan of Glassjaw or Converge. Glassjaw either bores me or does nothing for me and Converge is just too much for me. As for Thursday... well, that's better left unsaid. Suffice then to say that I was not one of the many fanboys heavily anticipating the so-called grindcore/power-violence (really, that's exaggerating it) release from this super-group, featuring Daryl Palumbo of Glassjaw, Geoff Rickley of Thursday, and Ben Koller of Converge. But I ended up checking it out regardless, and I'm glad that I did, because once you get past the deliberate attempt at inaccessibility made by the band, you find an uproarious hardcore release that's far more progressive than it lets on. Is it worth the hype, well, no, not entirely, but it's still a strong album with some vicious commentary that more than matches the belligerent tone of the music. "Say Goodbye to the General Figment of the USS Imagination" deserves special mention for its fantastic use of a saxophone solo drenched in feedback and distortion, the ultimate fall-out after such a relentless onslaught.


29. Black Ships - Omens

Have you ever wondered what sludge metal would sound like if it was sped up to 80 mph? Wonder no more. Straight out of Montreal comes some of the dirtiest hardcore you will ever hear, featuring densely layered guitars tuned all the way down and an angry, throaty roar that perfectly matches the din of noise surrounding it. Or, to put it in layman's terms: This. Fucking. Rips.


28. The Riot Before - Fists Buried in Pockets

Folk-punk generally takes one of two directions (an over-simplification, but bear with me): there is the more folk-sounding, but punk-inspired bands that you'll see on the Plan-It-X roster, and then there's the more true-to-the-name amalgamation of punk and folk, which generally utilizes both acoustic and electric guitars in their application of punk. This is of the latter. On their debut album, Fists Buried in Pockets, The Riot Before create an angry, literate punk album for every Orgcore kid looking for something new. "5 to 9" is a highlight here, telling the tale of a Mexican man who crosses the borders looking for work to support his family. The message isn't subtle in the least, but the song kicks too much ass to fault it for its overtness. The Riot Before balance these political songs with more introspective turns, such as "Words Written Over Coffee" wherein the singer presents an analysis of himself and his choices in life, eventually concluding that the path he has embarked on was the necessary one. Recommended for anyone who liked The Falcon or Chuck Ragan's solo turn.


27. pg.lost - It's Not Me, It's You

2008 was a very strong year for post-rock, and few albums were better than pg.lost's debut album, It's Not Me, It's You. Featuring soaring peaks and searing crescendos, this is the kind of aggressive, treble-heavy post-rock not seen since How Lonely Sits the City!, albeit not quite up to the level of that album. When the band climaxes, the results are often spectacular; the rest of the time, however, their music often reaches a lull, unsure of what to do when not building to a finish. Regardless, pg.lost are better more often than not, and the impression they leave is one of a delicate balance between intensity and nothingness, a prime example of crescendo-core done right (ew, now I feel all dirty).


26. Mesa Verde - The Old Road

What is most impressive about Mesa Verde is their ability utilize a number of techniques of band's that came before them and apply those influences into their music while still sounding like a breath of fresh air in an over-exposed genre. Mesa Verde manages to encompass both extremes of what you would expect from European screamo at the same time, switching back and forth between glistening post-rock build-ups (“A Deep Sleep Without Dreams”), and unkempt bursts of raw energy (“Return to Victories”), never content to rely solely on one or the other. At their most progressive, they sound like an even more post-rock leaning version of Sed Non Satiata, and at their most violent, they border on a more abrasive La Quiete.


25. Killing the Dream - Fractures

Killing the Dream are a hardcore band from Sacramento that utilizes the heaviness of metal with the musical harmonies of melodic hardcore. Fractures is the band's third full-length album, taking the formula from their past outings and refining it through the course of twelve superb bursts of forceful, energetic hardcore. The result is one of the year's best hardcore releases, one that manages to be both progressive in focus and aggressive in practice (Fucked Up, take notes).


24. Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling

Mogwai, though long considered a benchmark for post-rock, have never been a band that has thrilled me. Their so-called opus, Young Team, feels terribly overrated to me, albeit definitely different when presented with the stereotypical example of post-rock, and my other experiences with the band have left me even more apathetic. But The Hawk is Howling changed that for me. While it was met with lukewarm hype by most, to me it showcases a band that never tries to do too much, and as a result never manages to completely blow the listener away, but instead focuses on churning out interesting melodies and captivating riffs. Unlike on Young Team, where Mogwai's emphasis is on volume, The Hawk is Howling shows a lot more variety to the band; the trippy synesthesia of "The Sun Smells Too Loud", the haunting piano of "I'm Jim Morrison, I'm Dead", the gentle yet ominous progression of "I Love You, I'm Going to Blow Up Your School"... all great songs, all of which show different musical emphases by the band. The Hawk is Howling may not have much in peaks, but it more than makes up for that in its absorbing and refreshing manners of progression.


23. ...Who Calls So Loud - ...Who Calls So Loud

Taking their name from Dickens and their pedigree from Funeral Diner, ...Who Calls So Loud have created some of the best and most varied emotive hardcore of 2008 with their self-titled debut. Through the course of this album, the California four-piece works its way through some of the most intensely passionate epics since, well... Funeral Diner.

Hey, did I say they were ex-Funeral Diner? I did? Alright, just making sure. I wouldn't want to violate a statute of limitations or anything.

However, while the comparisons to their former group are inevitable, it's not like ...Who Calls So Loud don't deviate from their parent group, as the band makes a point of showing more variety to their assault than Funeral Diner ever did. For example, "Assume the Power Focus" begins with a delicate country lick that comes off as beautifully emotional without a word being uttered, a far cry from the dark, dense, and viciously aggressive approach of The Underdark. The result of this more varied approach is that ...Who Calls So Loud ends up feeling more refreshing than redone, making it one of the year's strongest releases.


22. Baader Brains - The Complete Unfinished Works of the Young Tigers

Mike Kirsch is back, and with yet another band. The former member of Please Inform the Captain... and Bread and Circuits has returned with The Complete Unfinished Works of the Young Tigers, the first full-length album by Baader Brains. Baader Brains was formed back in 2005 by Kirsch and former Swing Kids/Bread and Circuits member Jose Palafox, with their name acting both as a play on Bad Brains, as well as a tribute to the Red Army Faction and the Baader-Meinhof group. They play a relentless, heavy and revolutionary brand of hardcore that could be very aptly compared to the members' former band, Bread and Circuits. Like in previous Kirsch bands, sampling is used prominently, breaking up the fiercely defiant anthems with sarcastic educational film clips and the like. Angry, pointed, and resistant to the end, The Complete Unfinished Works of the Young Tigers is another chapter in the life of a musical revolutionary.


21. Made Out of Babies - The Ruiner

Noisy, tumultuous, and occasionally terrifying, The Ruiner is the third album of New York noise metal band, Made Out of Babies. Featuring members of Red Sparowes and Battle of Mice, Made Out of Babies take the deafening guitars of the former and the ominous post-metal temperament of the latter, combine them, and then add a lot of noise for good measure. Where it works is in the incredible atmosphere created, much in part due to the vocals of singer Julie Christmas, who may or may not be a banshee (I haven't confirmed it). Christmas sings much like the secretly evil child in a horror movie talks - you know, the one who insists upon saying everything in a really unsettling voice as the music around him suddenly builds to an operatic tension, just so you know that he's fucking evil. When surrounded with the kind of unholy racket the rest of the band puts up here - as emphasized by some stellar guitar work courtesy of Brendan Tobin and Eric Cooper - Christmas sounds like she might just be the anti-christ.


Additional entries will be posted in the days to come.

Ampere/Funeral Diner Split EP

1. Ampere - Secret Hallways
2. Ampere - Sleepwalkers
3. Funeral Diner - I Was the Sword

I will not pretend to be overly fond of Ampere. Their spastic, chaotic style, while brimming with energy and a strong sense of technicality, never stays with any one idea long enough for me to grasp on to it. In fact, I have a fun and easy-to-use formula on the subject:

Orchid - enjoyability = Ampere

And while their side of this split is surprisingly listenable given their track record, that's not why I'm posting it. The reason why is because the other side of the record is possibly the best thing Funeral Diner has ever done, which is too bad, considering this was also their last release before breaking up.

"I Was the Sword" is quite frankly a brilliant song, somewhat reminiscent of On the Might of Princes at their best. It builds through some sharply darting guitar lines and chaotically rhythmic drumming to a blisteringly emotional and intense climax, breaks it down, and then finds a new and effective way to do it all over again. This is 'epic' in every sense of the word, and should be considered a must-have by any fans of the band.

Ampere/Funeral Diner

I Wrote Haikus About Cannibalism in Your Yearbook - 8 Song Demo

Q: I actually wrote a haiku about cannibalism in someone's yearbook once.

A: He didn't get it.



There's an unstated point to this.


i wrote haikus about cannibalism in your yearbook

Transistor Transistor - Erase All Names and Likeness

Transistor Transistor - Erase All Names and Likeness


We draped ourselves in noise...

This is the sole line during the break of “Power Chord Academy”, and it sums up this album and this band’s approach to music perfectly. The riffs run together like something written by Sleep, but while still keeping the fire and speed of a hardcore band. Guitar lines dance in and out of this wall of noise, constantly changing in tone and spectrum. Screams reverberate throughout the background, adding to the caustic, droning melody. And all of it is fucking fantastic.

Hailing from New Hampshire, Transistor Transistor plays a heaving mix of hardcore that amalgamates a number of heavier influences while still retaining the speed and power of their namesake. In their early years, tours with bands such as Hot Cross and Wolves made them well known by regional fans for their energetic and lively performances. In 2005, they released their first full-length album, Erase All Names and Likeness, which infused the heavy rock stylings of earlier releases with a more dynamic and offbeat take on songwriting.


Musically, the band is top notch, relying on the steady melodies of the guitars and the forceful, pace-setting dynamism of the drums to guide each song forwards. The guitars on this album act like stoner metal on speed; slow, drudging repetitive riffs turned into fast, drudging repetitive riffs. On many of the tracks, you can almost see a comparison to Queens of the Stone Age, or to a lesser extent, Kyuss, only with less emphasis on the bass and a much murkier feel. Also worth noting are the hints of drone that pop up here and there when the music escalates. And yet, you can often see a number of swelling guitar lines that run away from the stoner metal aesthetic, flying upwards to create a number of crescendos that still manage to retain the cacophony of the music. It works, thanks to the bass guitar’s work in grounding these soaring melodies, allowing the lead guitar to cut right through the rolling electric noise of the bass in order to enhance and focus the peaks of the song.

Thanks to the density of the guitars and the “wall of sound” esthetic they create, the band unleashes a very dark atmosphere throughout, which is likely where most of the ‘screamo’ comparisons come from. There is something very mysterious and ominous about Erase All Names and Likeness, and it serves to create a very tense listening experience. It is this atmospheric tension which steers many of the longer songs, specifically the last song, the thirteen minute “A Sinking Ship Full of Optimists”. The band utilizes the aforementioned tension much in the way a Funeral Diner or Envy might, building through a quiet/loud structure in order to create a harrowing and foreboding environment.


But while the heaviness remains apparent through Erase All Names and Likeness, it is the vibrant energy that flows throughout that gives this album life. The band does an excellent job of bottling the energy of their live shows into this studio recording, and the passion with which they play is apparent. Much of this comes from the vocals, which slash through the noise with a number of ear-splitting screams and powerful shouts. The music is layered just so that the singer’s voice can barely overcome the droning excursions of the guitar. The two forces end up fighting with one another for supremacy, saturating one another through their tonal similarities. This disharmony enforces the underlying austerity of the content, adding further dissonance to an already disharmonic record.

On Erase All Names and Likeness, Transistor Transistor creates one of the best hardcore albums of the decade, coupling the sounds of their heavier predecessors with their own particular mixture of menace and balls-to-the-wall velocity. It’s fast, noisy, and decisively relentless in its approach to hardcore. However you look at it, this is a must-have for fans of heavy, throttling rock music.



we'll sink until we float

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And as a related aside, Transistor Transistor recently (a few months back) released their second album, Ruined Lives. To anyone interested, you can order it from any number of places linked here.

The Blood Brothers - ...Burn, Piano Island Burn

The Blood Brothers - ...Burn, Piano Island Burn


Straight out of Seattle, creating some of the most viciously hyperactive music I have ever heard, come the Blood Brothers. A five-piece hardcore/post-hardcore outfit, the Blood Brothers lasted from 1997 to 2007, playing an experimental and incredibly frenetic form of punk full of anger and aplomb. On ...Burn, Piano Island Burn, the group employs a more varied offence than seen in previous releases, as each song seems to seamlessly switch back and forth between fierce, balls-out hardcore and slower, more rhythmically-coordinated pop music. Considered by many to be the Blood Brothers’ magnum opus, …Burn, Piano Island Burn is an album full of convulsive, frantic music, one that refuses to let up to the very end.


The vocals will be the most obviously apparent thing noticed by any first-time listener, and rightly so. The vocal duties of the band are traded back and forth between the low-key, ominous cries of Jordan Billie and the blood-curdling screams of Johnny Whitney, showcasing an interesting duality between the two that reflects the diversity of the music. Billie often takes center stage while the music is still building in intensity, whereas Whitney shines mainly during the chorus, as his shrieks blend seamlessly with the high-octave onslaught of the refrain. Lyrically, the band covers a number of subject matters bordering on the morose and the gruesome, often utilizing disturbing surrealist imagery and metaphors to transcend the situation (When Cecilia's throat slit like a second set of lips/she drooled braille bibles onto the brothel bed spread). To call it morbid would seem like a measure of stating the obvious, but thankfully, it doesn’t come off as simple shock value due to the removed and sullen manner in which these lines are delivered. Rather than revel in the violence which the band deals with, Billie’s vocals remain oddly detached most of the time, neither celebrating the brutality of characters such as “The Salesman, Denver Max”, nor condemning them. It seems more of an exploration of these people, and thereby an examination of the society that creates them, rather than just pure vicarious misogyny. Songs like “Ambulance Vs. Ambulance” support this claim by taking a critical look at the products of mainstream society in the first verse, and then providing a more specific examination of an everyman who cheated on his wife in the second (You'll never see your wife and children again/ so tell us what was going through your head/when you looked into their eyes and said "no thanks I'll take the hooker instead"), all of which is linked together through the colourful backdrop of a hospital ward. By combining their two-pronged attack with such imaginative and multifaceted themes, the Blood Brothers feature one of the most unique vocal and lyrical assaults in all of punk.


Of course, it is worth pointing out that …Burn, Piano Island Burn is not an easy listen, and could prove quite beyond the reach of many. Musical harmony is thrown to the background throughout most of the faster tracks on this album, with the band resorting to a voracious mixture of discordantly creative instrumentalism in its place. The guitar feels jagged and unrelenting, almost bloodthirsty in its ability to drive the songs forward, and the bass complements its squealing perfectly. To a first-time listener, it may seem like nothing more than noise, with no thought given to melody at all, but over time, patterns emerge which shows the band's distinct attention to detail in creating each song. The instruments act as a piece of the story being told, intermingled with and subject to the topic at hand, rather than being counted on solely to dictate the pace. The guitars slow and the bass becomes more noticeable to suggest an ominous passage in the song; the music picks up, coalescing into a cacophonous explosion to denote a feeling of dire importance into the song. Much like a surrealist painting, the sum of the seemingly disparate parts work together in creating the message of the whole.

With …Burn, Piano Island Burn, the Blood Brothers create their best work, combining the frenzied, no holds barred appeal of past efforts while acquiring a more listenable, pop-oriented styling that would eventually become front and center on Crimes. Bizarre, morbid, and utterly demented, this is one of the most unique punk albums of the decade, and also one of the best.

1-900 USA N-A-I-L-S OH BABY

Pg. 99 - Document #8

Pg. 99 - Document #8


Punk rock should mean freedom. Liking and accepting anything that you like. Playing whatever you want, as sloppy as you want. As long as it’s good and it has passion.

When people think of punk rock, this might not be the first thing to enter your mind. This is a far cry from the Epitaph/Fat Wreck style of power chord punk that brought the genre back to the forefront of mainstream consciousness in the mid-90’s. There is no harmony here, no melodically repetitive rhythms to lull you into the feel-good rebellion. The music here has all the frantic qualities of a claustrophobic man buried alive, desperately scratching at the lid of his coffin to get out. Simply put, this is not meant to be a pleasant listen.

Pg. 99 formed on the outskirts of the D.C. hardcore scene in 1998, lasting five years and releasing a plethora of splits, singles, and EP’s in their short existence, as well as two full-length albums. Document #8 was their second full-length release, and in my opinion, their most mature as a group. Originally released in 2001, and later re-released in 2005, Document #8 sums up everything about the band into a nine song, twenty-eight minute assault. (Needless Side-note: I’m talking about the re-release time here, as that's what the file is. The last two tracks included, “The Lonesome Waltz of Leonard Cohen” and “The List” were both recorded after the initial release of Document #8, as part of a split with City of Caterpillar. These two songs were later included on the re-release of Document #8, after the band had already broken up.) With blistering sonic guitar patterns performed at furious speeds, accompanied by an equally vicious vocal assault on the listener, the optimum word here is “intense”.

A unique feature about this album, and one that distinguished the band as a whole from its contemporaries, is its featured 8-piece line-up. Boasting three guitars, two basses, two singers, and a drummer, Pg. 99 is unlike almost any punk band before it, focusing more on crafting dense, auditory layers that practically pummel the listener into submission. There is a frenetically forceful exhibition of sound on display here, strewn about between dark riffs and brooding silences. The vocals sound like they were completed under some horrific duress; every note is sung under the burden of some self-imposed torture, yet it still barely manages to penetrate the forceful wall of noise echoing throughout each track. In this way, the singing adds to the mood of the album, lending a sense of frustration that permeates the constant gloom of the guitars. It leaves the listener with a clear understanding of what the music represents, even if the lyrics are practically indecipherable.


With Document #8, Pg. 99 crafts one of the most passionately intense albums I have ever heard, and in the process, gave rise to many of the musical trends that would define emotive hardcore in the coming years. It’s dark, it’s (over)dramatic, and it acts as a full-blown fury of expression put into musical format. And despite the obvious discrepancies in sound, they still retain the spirit of punk rock, playing with speed, emotion, and an almost uncomfortable amount of passion and love for their music. You get the sense that this is what the musicians would rather be doing than anything else, and really, that’s all that matters.

Favourite tracks: In Love With an Apparition, The Hollowed Out Chest of a Dead Horse, The List

Document #8