Revisionist Western

I have a soft spot in my heart for one-song albums. I've never done one myself, but I always respect the audacity and ambition that goes into trying to hold a listener's attention through a single, long, uninterrupted track.  My Hair is a Rat's Nest, a largely one-person "screamo" (scare quotes because I have never liked that term) band, fills "The Longing Machine" with more than enough interesting twists and turns to make the one, nearly 25 minute long, song that composes the album interesting throughout.  An almost shockingly broad array of influences seem to weave their way through the song. It starts out with some classically dissonant 90s style screamy hardcore, with angular riffs, busy drumming, and shrieked vocals. But, as the minutes click on, the song adds layer upon layer, bringing in lush atmosphere and textures to complement the more traditionally aggressive approach of its first few minutes. By the end of the track, My Hair is a Rat's Ne...

  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...

As someone who is old enough to personally remember and have participated in 90s hardcore (aka "screamo," aka "skramz"), I look at a lot of the bands doing that sound today with ambivalence. Most bands playing this sound now don't quite recreate what I appreciated about the music at the time, leaving me feeling a little disconnected from what they're doing. This isn't a critique. It shouldn't  recreate that feeling for me. I was a kid, and it was a different time, and they're doing what makes sense to them, not to me.  Having said that, there are a handful of bands that somehow manage to absolutely nail the vitality of that sound to my ears. Portrayal of Guilt and Frail Body, for example, both come to mind. There's just something about both those bands that captures the earnestness of 90s hardcore to me. Add snag. to that list.  What now gets called "skramz," at its best, always feels like it's about to come apart at the seams. ...