Bad Girls Of The Bible – 88 Keys/Simple Mistakes 7″ (2005)

7″

Bad Girls Of The Bible – 88 Keys/Simple Mistakes 7″ (2005)

So this band broke up back in 2005 and hailed from Adelaide. They played a really great style of angular/rock with post-punk tinges and sometimes mathy elements. Sounds too good to be true even as I write it now! They released this ridiculously more-ish two track 7″ which was tracked at one of the band members studio and hit the road for more shows before sadly calling it a day a little while later.

I was lucky enough to get a hold of this bands first demo and lost my shit when I heard it. It had this raw Jawbox/Fugazi/Shellac essence just oozing from it…the guitars had this harsh sound to them which I still struggle to explain…kind of gritty but super clean…the drums were crisp and roomy and the bass was hella dirty and locked in with the drums 100%. Vocally the tone is largely a mash of yelling and tasteful harmonies, all of this just has me weak at the knees.

All of it is thankfully well and truly present on the 7″ that followed that demo.
The band offer it for free download via bandcamp and the vinyl is only $8 (comes with a cd copy as well) which I didn’t hesitate to order upon discovering the defunct bands page. I missed getting a copy when it was retailing through local record stores way back when..so I can’t express the joy of finally getting a copy all this time later! Ermagerd it sounds so good too!
Seriously worth a look in.

http://www.badgirlsofthebible.bandcamp.com

RIYL: Jawbox, Shellac, Fugazi

 

Hindsight/Love Alone – Split EP (2014)

I want to begin this review with: Favourite local release of 2014?

Still got 6 months to go before that title can be given..but this is a contender.

Two bands.. Hindsight (from Adelaide) and Love Along (Melbourne) have paired together to create a formidable collection of melodic hardcore, punk and even post-rock that straight away has my interest spiked. It’s fast and melodic and passionately intense.

‘Love Alone’ kick of their bracket with #1 ‘Iron Eyes’ > a very post-rock-ambient intro .. kind of lulling you into a false start..cos moments later it completely switches into a break neck punk section and settles in mid paced melodic screamo territory. It ends with snare rolls, distant shouting and reverb laden guitars and all the time i’m thinking.. this is next level stuff..wow.

#2 ‘Opaque’ has more vocals and a higher energy that than the previous track. It’s tempo races and the palm muted guitars find the groove. There’s more of a Touche Amore/Pianos feel going on here in that it isn’t straight/tight rock and has more openness and variety in guitars/vocals are busier and there’s more noise in play.

#3 ‘A Rainless Storm Pt1’ carries seamlessly from the last track..i had to check the screen to see if it was even the same song. It’s all ambience and post-rock reverb and the drums sound like they’re in a cathedral with all the room sound! Its a surprise instrumental that closes out ‘Love Alones’ portion of this and i’m beyond impressed. Seriously. What the hell was that?

THEN>>>

‘Hindsight’ play a type of fast, melodic hardcore in the vein of Anchors/Stolen Youth/Irrelevant/Mary Jane Kelly to name a few of the older aussies in the pool. But..maybe with a few more twists and suprises than their contemporaries. This is a new generation of players after all.

There’s an intro track..drums sound off..toms rolling along with clean guitars picking the notes from the chord progression that will become #2 ‘Heidi Ho’. The vocals carry a distinct feeling of emotion in them.. it sounds like this dude is about to Loose. His. Shit. It’s possibly the most impacting thing about this band at first. There’s other members of the band adding vocals, singing and group vox too so it’s a big sound!

#3 W.I.N.G.S. is a different beast. The song starts sounding as though it should be all full and heavy but the guitars remain clean and bright. The vocals and drums are all going at it 100%, but there’s a feeling of restraint to it and this helps to enhance the vocals in this song and build up tension..cos.. you know the heavy is going to drop. And you wait. I really like how this band is teasing at the idea of what you expect to happen and instead..just not doing it. The track ends after a few build ups and smoothed out passages and it never does that big heavy bit.

Then the closer #4 ‘Inner Beauty’ comes and it’s like the drop you were waiting for!! The guitars are just attacking and huge, drums are fast tights and it’s aggressive! There’s a very cool spoken word part in the middle of this one that’s really worth listening to.. ‘I am not worthless/I am fucking worthy/I am myself/And i will never change/I can never change’. Let it all hit you in the guts.

Powerful stuff from two relatively new names to the scene. I seriously hope they can both outlive the new-band life expectancy and grow to make more music in this vein. I’m genuinely floored by this release and think it’d be a right shame for it to go unheard!

Stalk: http://www.facebook.com/lovealoneau

and get half here: http://lovealoneau.bandcamp.com

Stalk: https://www.facebook.com/hindsightmhc

and get the other half here: http://hindsightmhc.bandcamp.com/

Left For Wolves – Real Life EP (2014)

EP Cover

The opening track with it’s gang vox/big half time break down.. demonstrates the production values are high on this release and it sounds rrrrreal good. Turn it up. Worth noting is that you can hear every instrument INCLUDING BASS. Bravo boys! It’s obviously just a set up/intro track for the next song ‘Overflow’ which is where the band gets properly into it..but for a kick-off to the EP..it actually sold me on giving the next 5 songs my time.

The band has all the trade mark moments of a serious modern hardcore act..snare rolls over guitars building up into halftime grooves, melodic second guitar parts over the chord’s.. then descending back into a mid paced tough as-nails passage. Neat little guitar trade offs where it goes left/right/left bit grabbed my attention..i like synchronicity like that.

Vocally it’s more or less one deep/grainy hardcore vocal enhanced by occasional gang vox which reminds me heaps of Turmoil/The Haunted/Shadows Fall.. so late nineties US-metal/hardcore. It fits really well actually.

The 3^rd and title track to the EP ‘Real Life’ starts with a cool melodic lead over half time chugs.. but shifts gear to a sweet double time punk/core passage and then settles back into a bouncy/groove break. It’s formulaic but damn it works. They’ve obviously spent time on all these transitions and tempos..changes and riffs because it just flows and moves without getting tedious or boring.

These are the trends that repeat throughout the rest of the EP. ‘Build and Release’ as a principle in song writing still works in heavy stuff like this. When the intensity is high all the time you have to implement different dynamics and elements to the mix in order to achieve anything interesting anymore and it seems that Left For Wolves have achieved that across the 6 tracks. They aren’t re-inventing the wheel of course.. there’s honestly nothing new to be done in this genre anyway..and maybe one of the selling points would be that it’ll feel immediately familiar to fans of the genre.

The EP ends with a big slow breakdown ..much like it started with and brings about a kind of closure to it all. In the absence of djenty/proggy/ambient elements…this is great hardcore for right now. I think it sounds tough as balls, the performances are spot on and vocally it’s consistent with anything you’ve heard before and balances out really well. I’d usually only lend my ears to stuff that’s getting some buzz..and i hadn’t heard these guys before listening so this was definitely a buzz-free review..and now..im rather glad i gave it the time!

Stalk em here:  http://www.facebook.com/leftforwolves

FREE D/L available from http://www.leftforwolves.bandcamp.com

Sentinel – The Fabrication / 2014 (Single)

Melbourne based ‘Sentinel’ have released a new single for free D/L via the bands bandcamp page. This track has all the trademark “beow…djent..chugga” bits and crazy guitar noodling matched with enough deep growls and screams to scare ya Mum. But… there’s an added ambient/instrumental section in the middle with clean guitars (similar to moments that appered in some of the bands earlier work) and it really gells well and grabbed my attention! Im pretty tired of this style..but these lads will be well worth your time 🙂 Really liked it!

RIYL: Northlane, Prepared Like a Bride, Structures, Born Of Osiris .. (aka djenty metal stuff)