1. My Shame
2. On the Road
3. Coming Home
4. Call to Arms
5. Want You More
6. Inside of a Monster
7. All Alone
8. I’m Sorry
9. Burning Down
10. Threshold

I’ve heard some good things about Low Value, so my expectations here were pretty high. I wasn’t disappointed. With all the Millencolin and Hi-Standard influences, especially within the vocal style, Low Value certainly stick to the skatepunk roots with some bits of technical guitar work, screams (at least in “My Shame”) and chock full of double-time drummery.

“Coming Home” is certainly one of the most euphoric tunes (although with an effective juxtaposition of sad lyrics) I’ve heard for a while, with killer verses and even killerer (?) choruses. The guitar solos are nothing if not original and each lead line has a unique personality, whether it’s the bendy, smooth silliness of the one in “On the Road”, the metal-influenced divebombing discords in “Call to Arms” or the Strung Out style double-tapping in “Want You More”.

Some of their tracks are a tad long and over-the-top, and Low Value don’t quite regain the energy and punch they blasted out in “My Shame” through the rest of the album, but it’s an enjoyable, full-length that is certainly high value.

www.myspace.com/lowvalue

1. All Singing, All Dancing, Baby!
2. Headlights & Halos
3. Kids of Cancer
4. Raise Your Glass
5. Save Us From Sorrow
6. Sunsets

I remember the first time I heard Saves the Day was on MTV2 (or something) when “At Your Funeral” was becoming popular and the vocals had such a tender quality to them I couldn’t help but love them. Anglesey’s Through Colour have that same endearing charm that defined Chris Conleys vocals for me back then, but with a heavier, punk-influenced-commercial-rock sound popularised by bands like Paramore. What a great combination that is, and it works so well; there are great tunes laid over this solid backing and lyrics that serve a real communicative purpose, thoughtful and full of emotion, yet still with room for interpretation for the listener to be able to find their own meaning.

I seem to spend more and more time in my car recently, going from one workplace to the next like some sort of music-teaching rent-boy, and so I was listening to this album over my car stereo towards the end of the day when I was pretty low on energy, When “Kids of Cancer” popped on and lifted my spirits entirely. It’s probably one of the least original tracks on the album, but they’ve chucked all the right musical techniques in there to push my buttons and fuck me if I wasn’t headbanging in my own little imaginary in-car-moshpit during this track, which is damn near perfect (apart from the unnecessary and bland half-time mid-section).

Through Colour don’t have all the hooks and harmonies to please the chart-topping-single-buying public just yet, but they’ve got a great, powerful sound that sets them apart from the field. I’m sure they’ll be up there touring with the big guys soon.

www.myspace.com/thisisthroughcolour

1. Intro
2. Ignite the Fury
3. The Wraith
4. Confessions of a Self-Righteous Mind

Intro tracks are a great way to set the scene for an album, and often give the listener a feeling that something epic to behold will ensue. Why on earth you need an intro track before just 3 other tracks is beyond me. From this intro it seemed I may be treated to a wad of Cradle of Filth type black metal, but it wasn’t to be. Instead it’s a standard metalcore EP full of the same ripped-off guitar riffs, harmonics and breakdowns from any other generic band of this style. The vocals have some good power behind them, but the contour of the lines often bear little relation to the syntax therein, with emphasis either on words in unusual places (by means of changing from low growls to demonic screams) or on none at all, making for monotonous, sad times.

The pace of the songs are pretty good, with nicely structured arrangements of each verse and breakdown, but the melodies and chord sequences are uninspiring, unoriginal and don’t feel like they’re leading anywhere, there’s no tension and no excitement.

www.myspace.com/echoesfall

1. Paid in Puke
2. Bikini Killa!!!!!!!
3. GET it GRRRL!!!
4. Spring Breaks
5. s k a n k
6. F.Y.I- i wil (spew burrito chunks)
7. BLoodYFUN [live]
8. Devist8or (live in Seattle)
9. Bikini Killa (amphetamine virus remix)

I’ve not listened to much digital hardcore for a while, but this album popped up as a recommendation so I thought I’d tell you about it.

It’s got the beats and energy of Atari Teenage Riot and the screaming distorted vocals of Ec8or, all put together with a ultra feminist twist, especially with tracks like “Bikini Killa”, with it’s angry verses taking a swipe at everything that is today’s idea of sexuality.

The drum breaks are harsh and roll like a bitch, while the overdriven synths and gabber kick drums pound away, ever changing, never getting boring, while occasionally feeling the nudge in the ribs of hip-hop and dubstep. Even the little 1 minute tracks have substance, whereas on many albums these could easily turn out to be fillers. The final remix track is an insane breakcore thrash through the original and is a real smack in the face after the two live tracks.

This is a dark album, and if you want to blow some cobwebs away, download this from the D-Trash Records website and put it on full blast, if you can handle it.

http://www.myspace.com/juliedstroy

1. Crooked Hands
2. Misery King
3. Her Casket Holds No Bones
4. Nausea
5. Matriarch
6. Sea of Teeth/Bleak Eyes
7. Heir of the Dog

I was not prepared for such anger and volume of screaming and passion. You can’t fault the performance in this album, they’re bleeding every drop of sound out of every song and I love and appreciate this more than anything else in a band. The massively downtuned guitars create a dark backdrop to this hardcore rock and they have a neverending cache of effects and ideas to create their original sound: from the ringing minor 3rd in the guitar over most of “Her Casket Holds No Bones”, the polyrhythms of the vocals against the drums in “Nausea” and stop time stabs between the punched out vocals in the breakdown of “Misery King”, Bastions certainly are creative.

If you listen to this, actually, when you listen to this (because you really should) you’ll be sure to be blown away by those vocals, which crack and roar with an anger seldom heard. Unlike many hardcore vocalists who seem happy to scream at the same level through every song, the singer of Bastions manages to exert expression yet never yield in the brutality of the sound.

http://www.myspace.com/bstns

1. 99
2. Sweater Weather
3. Songs for a Rainy Day
4. Winnetka & Heart
5. Unspoken
6. Promenade
7. Touch my Heart
8. Nanny
9. Valiant
10. One Day at a Time

Well I don’t normally do this – reviewing tracks from an online stream, but let’s see how it goes.  Jacuzzi Fiend dub themselves as a “speed-emo” band, which I can’t say exactly fills me with excitement, although perhaps intrigue.  “99″ begins with a bit of piano before rocking in with the skatepunk, overlaid by loved-up lyrics (ah so that’s what they meant by speed-emo).  The whole track is pretty monotone, and for one which is heading towards 8 minutes long to use 4 chords stretches my patience an awful lot and doesn’t leave enough room for the vocal melody to vary.  This is a problem that transcends to many of their other songs.

“Song for a Rainy Day” is structured similarly to “99″, and even includes some Van Halen type finger tapping, although, just like on “99″, it goes on too long and is awkward to listen to because it’s so out of time with the backing.

Gosh these songs are long, most of them so far are past the 5 minute mark and include way too much instrumental stuff that largely consists of simple chord sequences and a basic lead guitar or something over the top.  Some of their sounds remind me of MxPx’s early days, especially “Unspoken”; the difference being that MxPx would have finished their songs after about 2m30s at the most, but Jacuzzi Fiend seem intent on stringing them out way longer than necessary.  They’ve got a lot of good ideas in their music, but they’re all so far apart, it’s like eating a massive pizza with a couple of tiny bits of really nice cheese and tomato and the rest is a standard base.  I mean I love a double speed drumbeat as much as the next skatepunker, but this is so relentless I can’t wait until each track finishes.

With some great editing, these 10 very long tracks could become 4 or 5 short and awesome tracks I’m certain.  One of the main reasons I like punk rock is that I have a short attention span and this makes me tense and frustrated.

www.myspace.com/jacuzzifiend

1. Lost the Magic
2. Broken Sound

This is pretty damn loud recording, there’s so much compression it’s untrue! I suppose this is all a symptom of the “loudness wars”. Oddly enough though, everything is still audible and mixed well, just a shame some of the treble got distorted during the mastering. Down to the music though, which is a post-hardcore/alt-rock combo with convulsing, throbbing riffs and vocals that are jabbed into the music like a stanley knife into a shaken-up can of ginger beer, each line fizzing with a bitterness of self belief and energy.

It’s nice to hear this kind of music done without too many over-the-top and pretentious lyrics and song titles. In fact, it’s precisely because Hold Your Horse Is stick to some more standard song structures that makes them quite accessible in that respect. There’s the occasional breakout into a quiet, non-distorted build-up or a dark disco beat (!) that keeps the sound from being stale. If they could possibly give a massive slap to the person who mastered the recording then these guys have a bright future.

http://www.hyhi.co.uk

I was quite surprised that they hadn’t got round to soundchecking before the doors opened. That’s one thing that really bugs me. I don’t want to hear a band soundchecking just before they go on; it screams of unprofessionalism when you have to hear the neverending avant-garde poetry of the stage-hands – “one, two, two, two, two, check, check, check, check, two, two, one, two”. Anyway, the lights went down, everyone whooped and on came Lost Alone.

These were a very likeable band with fashionable haircuts, catchy emo/pop-punk songs and lots of energy. I especially enjoyed their original 3-part harmonies that were absolutely spot on, smooth and zipped around in contrary-motion, which coming from a 3-piece band is always impressive. For a 3-piece band also to come out with a sound so rich and full gives testament to their skill of setting up their instruments correctly and arranging their songs well. A great set that put me in a great mood for the night. So I went and bought some over-priced, watered-down lager. 7/10

I’d read a bit about Street Drum Corps briefly before I went to the gig, and it sounded a pretty impressive idea, experiment with mixing various percussion things with punk rock. So their slot began (after some more tedious sound checking) and 3 masked guys were hitting some upturned bins with sticks along to some backing track. Now, as a spectacle, this looked impressive, as they were bang on in time to the backing track, but everything was mimed, these bins weren’t even mic’d up, which made the whole little charade seemm like it would be more at home on Britain’s Got Talent than a punk rock show. I’m certain that it would still have sounded pretty cool if we could hear what they were actually doing.

They then started to get down to business, which is essentially rock and roll with a punk edge like Randy or Electric Frankenstein. The percussionist at the front had an array of floor toms, oil-drums and cymbals, which again was a good spectacle and was something different to see in a punk band, but you couldn’t hear a single thing he was doing apart from the odd cymbal crash. Not even when he was hitting the oil-drums with a baseball bat could you hear it as there was not a single section in the music that offered some space for this percussion. Whether it was the cheesy, over the top backing track chock full of synths and electronic drums or the main drums themselves, it made the percussionist at the front nothing more than a dancer who hit things. Take away the entertaining image of this on-stage chaos and the great stage presence of the camp frontman and what you’re left with was a badly mixed, mediocre sound that I’ve seen and heard a million times at local venues. 5/10

I saw 30 Seconds To Mars at the Give It A Name festival in 2008, and they put on a real good show then. Since then of course commercially they’ve gone from strength to strength, so I expected they’d have even more money to burn from their record label and would put on a mind blowing performance. I wasn’t wrong. Happily, the reason for their good performance was the way they structured the whole show, which demonstrated a superb thought process into what would give the most entertainment. Some of these structural effects were the way the curtain came down before their slot to hide their preparations, their quick transportation right to the top of the seated audience to do a couple of acoustic songs, the moving to a stage in the middle of the floor to give everyone a new angle on the band (which, incidentally didn’t stop the moshpit at the front from going crazy with some good-natured circle pits) and getting loads of audience members up on stage to sing their encore of Kings and Queens alongside some inaudible (as always) military drumming from the Street Drum Corps (see the video above that I recorded). I’m glad they spent all their time preparing this performance with truly effective ideas such as these rather than gratuitous special effects and props. A superb, enjoyable gig. 9/10

State of Mine
1. Opening Sequence
2. Conspiracy Earth
3. Burnout
4. How to Survive Emocore
5. Last Chance to Dance
The Octopussys
1. Burger Kiing
2. Succubus
3. Burning Calories is Bad for Business
4. State of Emergency
5. I Fucked Up Again

Once the dull instrumental of the “Opening Sequence” is out the way, we’re actually onto some fun skatepunk provided by Belgium’s State of Mine, hitting us with decent political lyrics over a tight backing with plenty of jumps and syncopations. The single-string lead guitar over a lot of the chord sequences sounds very No Use For a Name-like and really rings of the 90s, and is maybe a little overdone as the lack of a second guitar leaves the sound a bit thin in places. The vocals have a great edge to them, like early Guttermouth or Jughead’s Revenge and even the backing harmonies sound raw without too much shine and polish.

The Octopussys (also from Belgium) take the second half of the album with something a lot more poppy, a bit like the Donots or Vanilla Pod, but with slightly more self-depreciative lyrics despite the superficial jollity of the overall sound of most of the tracks. I must admit though, their tracks were washing over me somewhat until I heard “State of Emergency” which really blew me away, with its different mood and technical soloing not unlike A Wilhelm Scream.

A good fun split album, to compare the bands would be like apples and oranges because they’re both pretty different, but I’m sure if you like one, you’ll like the other. There’s a lot of promise from both bands and still a fabulously raw feel to it all.

www.myspace.com/stateofminebe
www.myspace.com/theoctopussys

1. Villain
2. Honor, Not Pride
3. All Because of You
4. Hanging Up
5. Lost Control
6. Bridges and Breakdowns
7. Sick of It all
8. PSA
9. Sitting Down Drinking Beer
10. Deciding
11. Numbers
12. Scarlet Letter
13. The Fight
14. Gone Before You Know
15. [secret track]

The Down and Outs begin the album with an old-fashioned 90s style of skatepunk with simple chord sequences and tunes, shiny vocal harmonies and a touch of ska, not unlike early Millencolin or even 88 Fingers Louie. So I was listening to the first half of this album and pretty much the only things that crossed my mind were “yeah, skatepunk!”, “this song is quite long” and “hmm, their style is quite nice”

The Public Service Announcement in the middle of the album confused me a bit, I thought I was listening to Spotify and one of their adverts had kicked in, until I realised the sheer randomness and non-sequitur nature of the content.

After the PSA, the album improved considerably, with a few short riotous songs and some edgier Bigwig style power, altogether a lot more creativity and variation in the songs, some standout bass riffs and classic little jumps and chugs in the rhythm. It felt like I’d listened to a split album of two artists, and while not much really grabbed me on the first half, there were many more times on the second half that made me think “hey, that was fucking cool!”.

www.thedownandouts.com