CONSTANT WAVES - self-titled CD review

CONSTANT WAVES - self-titled CD review

"Well it's been a hell of a wait but Stourbridge's instrumental post-metallers CONSTANT WAVES finally dropped their album of funky yet epic, face-meltingly powerful tunes earlier this year. Those that have been fortunate enough to catch this four-piece live over the years will recognise a lot of these seven tunes, from the blistering opener 'Chicken in the Blood' to live favourite and album closer 'Dr. Rumack'. This is a beautifully varied piece of work that incorporates sweet, clean, melodic, ambient soundscapes, funky, danceable licks, epic post-metal walls of distorted noise, and massive head-caving riffs, and plays heavily on the contrast between all of these varied sounds, creating a truly dynamic listening experience. Driving all of this is some seriously tight, solid, and wonderfully prominent bass that holds its own against the soaring guitars, and some consistently brilliant technical drumming that's always as heavy or as full as it needs to be. A great and consistent piece of work (with brilliant song-titles!) that was well worth the wait."

http://constantwaves.bandcamp.com/

xox

CASTAWAY / STATUTES split CD review

CASTAWAY / STATUTES split CD review

"So this split CD features three tracks each from CASTAWAY and STATUTES; the former play a kind of punk-rock that's musically a bit like CITIZEN but also makes me think of a heavier version of BANGERS, especially on the gruff vocals, or POLAR BEAR CLUB without the bright chords and melodies. The second track is the exception, favouring a more garage rock'n'roll vibe with a sharper, harsher scream on the vocals. Not too shabby and worth checking if you like those aforementioned bands. STATUTES play a more emotionally driven sound that kind of has that new clean screamo / melodic hardcore sound to it, with bright guitar chords and melodies, slow signatured but punchy drum work, and vocals that sit half-way between a sing and a shout. Fans of PIANOS BECOME THE TEETH would probably dig this. A nice little split if you like clean melodic hardcore."

Have a listen here: https://hellurrecords.bandcamp.com/album/statutes-castaway-split

xox

AS IT IS - 'Never Happy Ever After' review

AS IT IS - 'Never Happy Ever After' review

So yeah, time to start uploading reviews from issue eight, and here's the first:

"I've not really been too impressed lately with a lot of the new, bigger pop-punk bands, like NECK DEEP and DECADE for example, so I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that this debut from AS IT IS is incredible. Seriously. This is exactly how big, polished pop-punk should be done; a tonne of energy with varieties of pace, huge melodies, and some of the biggest choruses you'll ever hear that stick with you pretty much instantly. It probably helps that the lead vocalist is American (the rest of the band are British) and thus has one of those bright nasal vocal styles that just sounds right, and it contrasts really nicely with that of the gruffer sounding guitarist. They can also both write great vocal melodies that marry perfectly not only with each other but also with the stellar musicianship. It's hard to pick favourites from here but 'Speak Soft', 'Cheap Shots...', 'Dial Tones', and 'Concrete' are all perfect pop-punk anthems, and 'My Oceans Were Lakes' adds a beautiful change of pace and mood. 'Silence' is also fantastic. If you like your pop-punk polished, and maybe with a bit of the old school like NEW FOUND GLORY and THE STARTING LINE, then get this; you won't regret it."

xox

'The Screever' issue eight (plus a cassette and patch!)

'The Screever' issue eight (plus a cassette and patch!)

Well, it felt like it took forever, but issue eight is FINALLY HERE, and it's the biggest yet at a whopping 56 pages, featuring interviews with Mark Bell Illustration, Scottish Riot Grrrl two-piece Bratakus, Tom of CARNIE FILM PRODUCTION talking about his new Acid-Western 'Stranger', Joe Solo talking about 'We Shall Overcome' weekend, new local skate-wear company Crow clothing, and Italian post-hardcore two-piece PASTEL, plus reviews, puzzles, recipes, Gaelic and some other stuff. Not only this, but we also have the new 19 track comp. cassette (more info. on that soon) and another run of patches courtesy of the lovely Lou at 13 O'clock screenprinting.

You can order all of this stuff from here:

http://glassofspit.bigcartel.com/

Cheers :)

xox

RESUSCITATORS - 'Make it Through Another Night' review

RESUSCITATORS - 'Make it Through Another Night'

"So these guys from London play melodic punk-rock that has the rowdiness of bands like DROPKICK MURPHYS and THE RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS, the 90s Fat Wreck sounds of stuff like GOOD RIDDANCE, and newer melodic punk stuff like NO HARM DONE, which for me is never going to be a bad combination. So what we have here are five tracks of pacey, highly melodic punk tunes with plenty of character, sing-a-longs, great guitar melodies that stick to you instantly, and tonnes of backing vocals with a crazy amount of reverb on them, plus one pretty cool slower track at the end that starts acoustically but picks up halfway through. The lyrics seem to favour subjects like drinking, relationships, and general life hardships, and I really like how they utilise a bunch of different vocalists with very different tones and textures. The opening track 'Jaws of Life' is pretty awesome and has a great ending, and 'Little Victories' is the one that plays first on their Bandcamp, so that might be one to check out too. A nice slice of British melodic punk rock."

https://www.facebook.com/resuscitatorsband

xox

'The Stars Are a Free Show' Volume 1

'The Stars Are a Free Show' Volume 1

So yeah, alongside issue six of the zine we released a compilation cassette of bands that had been featured over the years, or were in some way related to the local scene, which included a bunch of genres from thrash-skatepunk, through instrumental emo, ambient, post-hardcore, and up to black-metal. Anyway, the tapes sold out pretty quick, so both sides are now up on Youtube for your convenient listening pleasure. The video in this post is side A, and side B can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seLu6sV_LFE

Thanks a lot; enjoy! :)

xox

MERRIDEW - 'Undercity West' Pre-Order...

MERRIDEW - 'Undercity West' Pre-Order...

So yeah, Lee has a new EP coming out under his solo instrumental post-hardcore project MERRIDEW called 'Undercity West'. It's six tracks of shorter and faster songs than he usually puts out, and if you pre-order it for a fiver during October, you'll also get a free three track cassette with it when he posts them out in November. Pretty cool right? You can listen to a song here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Hx-oJnNp0

And then pre-order it from here:

http://glassofspit.bigcartel.com/product/gos001-sperare-the-solace-e-p

Thanks a tonne! :)xox