Revisionist Western

  Not sure what it is, but Russia just kills it  with the genre bending bands these days. На том берегу (don't ask me how to pronounce that, I couldn't begin to guess) are a new neocrust/hardcore band from over there who've recently put out what appears to be their first EP, entitled Мистраль (once again, no idea). This is easily some of the best stuff I've heard like this in a while. It reminds me of the late 90s/early 2000s hardcore (the stuff kids half my age call "skramz"), like Lack , Yage , or even City of Caterpillar, a little bit, with driving, melodic riffs under mostly screamed, impressionistic lyrics. Throughout the EP, though, На том берегу maintain an undercurrent of furious, d-beat hardcore, which helps keep the intensity ratcheted up to 11.  I cannot stress enough that I love this EP. Few records I've heard recently have been as aimed right at me as this is. If you're a fan of bands like Morrow , Fall of Efrafa , or Respire , На том бер...

Damn, this is right up my alley. Just wanted to draw some attention to this great two track preview of Leviatán, which appears to be an upcoming album by Spanish band Ansïa. These two tracks are some really well written, melodic neocrust, seamlessly blending mid-tempo, melodic hardcore, with some anthemic, atmospheric sludge and grind. Neocrust is, obviously, one of my favorite genres and I'm really stoked to hear a band do it so well. This preview is NYP and I'll be sure to mention if and when the full album drops. prewiew Leviatán by Ansïa

Dumange is a Spanish neocrust band and this appears to be their first release. Dropping a single, 40 minute song as your first release when you're a crust band is a gutsy move, but Dumange pull it off with this release. Writing long songs when you're a hardcore band always means that you have to use every trick you have to keep things interesting in a genre whose tools are designed to give you minute long bursts of energy. Dumange combine a variety of sounds and textures in this song, ranging from driving, post-rocky parts, to gentle passages with whispered vocals over them, to full on raging d-beat. The end result is something that, to me, sounds like melodic crust like Remains of the Day or Deszcz mixed with Envy or City of Caterpillar. If any of that is your jam, this is PWYW over at Bandcamp. I'd recommend it.   Entre ratas by Dumange

Okay, kids. History time. There was a point, back in the 90s, when a genre called "screamo" didn't exist and most bands that played what now gets called screamo actively rejected the label (because, let's be honest, it's an embarrassing term). Those bands (including bands I was in that sounded like that) typically thought of what they were doing as good old hardcore, albeit slightly outside the box hardcore. Then, somehow, the "screamo" label started to stick, and then later generations needed a whole new word (skramz) to differentiate original pretty good screamo from later much worse screamo. Which I get. If I were 22 I wouldn't want to admit I listen to a lot of "screamo" from the the last ten years, either. Anyway, where I'm going with this is that Lagrimas is a band from Los Angeles that sits right at this intersection in a way I really appreciate. What I think people responded to about the 90s hardcore that gets called sk...