Friday 15 July 2016

BASEMENT - 'Promise Everything' review


BASEMENT - 'Promise Everything' review


So after a short hiatus, BASEMENT are back with another ten tracks of their heavily 90s-influenced grunge / emo sound, and to be fair, I'm pretty glad they reformed because this is as good as anything that I've heard them do before. It's thick on the guitars with some great, emotive chordwork (that's brighter than what I recall of 'Colour Me in Kindness'), straight and heavy on the bass and drums, and as well as having some really good vocal melodies, the vocalist still plays on that dynamic between his slow, soft, and droney voice, his bigger, fuller singing voice, and that almost-shouting that he does, which gives this a lot of depth and helps to pace the songs and create some pretty big moments. There's something really cool about the simplicity of BASEMENT's stuff; it eschews any technical flare in favour of quite basic playing styles and arrangements, so it's easy to get into and will stick to you really quickly. If you liked their previous stuff (I really liked 'Colour...', and this is a great, if a little brighter, follow up) then you should have no problem getting into this, but if you're not already a fan but you like MILK TEETH, TIGERS JAW, or grunge / emo from the 90s, then this is as good of a place to start as any. My favourite tunes on here are the opener 'Brother's Keeper', the catchiest number 'Aquasun', and the closer 'Halo' which is simple but wonderful, so they might be a good place to start.

https://www.facebook.com/Basementuk/

xox

Monday 11 July 2016

ALMEIDA - 'Social Media Circus' CD review


ALMEIDA - 'Social Media Circus' CD review


Anyone that picked up these guys' debut 'Fantastic Massacre', or has seen them live or even heard them before will know that they're mental. Utter loonatics, no doubt about it. They play a highly technical and thrashy punk / metal amalgamation (that even breaks for a short reggae rhythm in the second song and has a circus-y bit of keys in the fourth) that is relentlessly lightning fast on the drums in blasts and skate punk rhythms, both riffy and mathcore-twiddly on the guitars, bass heavy, and vocalled with a combination of deep, demonic growls, and soaring, power-metal melodies that at times reach ridiculous heights. Comparisons will always be drawn to bands like PROTEST THE HERO, but ALMEIDA definitely have their own sound and style (it's more skatepunk than metal really; think a heavier PROPAGANDHI), and if you're not daunted by very technical and proggy song structures, they're an awesome listen, and somehow fantastically tight live. The whole thing is musically sublime as always, but credit to Tom because lyrically this is class (I don't know how on earth he writes to this stuff), and he has some real stand-out moments on here... but I'll let you find them for yourself. So yeah, an ace follow up to 'FM', and they've made a video to the shortest song on here, 'Payday', so that would be a great place to start if you like metal / thrash / prog / tech / skatepunk crossovers...


xox