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MODERATEROCK
Age: 25
Location: UK
Joined On: Jun 20, 2006
Occupation: professional liar
Website: www.myspace.com/moderaterock
Welcome to ModerateRock's PureVolume. There'll be a website soon but for now visit www.myspace.com/moderaterock, www.moderaterock.blogspot.com and www.last.fm/moderaterock for new music news, reviews and interviews.
OWEN- At Home With...
Falling from the Kinsella family tree must be a curse just as much, if not more, than it is a blessing. Yeah, ok, you get the ability to strum a mean acoustic, an achy-breaky vocal tone and rugged good looks, simply by DNA. But when you, and your nearest and dearest, have already contributed Capn Jazz, Joan Of Arc, American Football, Owls and more to the world, the pressure is always on. Luckily, fucking up is something that Owen (actually Mike Kinsella), has never managed before and he doesnt get round to it here. From the feathery beginnings of Bad News, through gentle percussion, tender piano and a cover of the Velvet Undergrounds Femme Fatale, to the closing strings and sparkles of One Of These Days, At Home With is as fragile and beautiful, as mature and intimate, and perhaps even more special than anything thats gone before it. In other words, eight songs that prove emo neednt always be a dirty word and some trees forever yield sweet fruit.
MISERY SIGNALS- Mirrors
Did anybody catch the number on that truck? Because Mirrors, the Misery Signals second record, is a fucking juggernaut. Its angry and fast but thick with ideas, its a gear-grinding but extremely clever record and it never once threatens to follow the metalcore numbers. Theres technical changes exploding everywhere, frenzied guitars, pounding drums and a new vocalist, Karl Schubach, who matches the old for gruff tone, great lyrics and a brilliant shadowy presence. The appearance of Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump on One Day Ill Stay Home will be enough to irk the scene police but theres nothing in Misery Signals delivery that suggest they re after a quick buck. It all adds up to a dirtier, grittier sound than most of the bands contemporaries manage. In fact, if you shaved off the clever time changes and roaring, vicious vocals it would still be compelling post-hardcore, post-rock stuff. This is a continuation of the expansive aggressive sound that Poison The Well revolutionised with their last effort (and will revolutionise again with their next). Consider the bar well and truly raised.
MODERN LIFE IS WAR- Witness
Man, this band are pissed off. Perhaps not in way that, if you've been busy listening to the new Trivium single, you'll recognise or fully understand. But there's enough naked anger here to fuel hardcore for the next decade. Except that Modern Life Is War don't want much to do with that particular genre at all.
Where their previous album, 'My Love, My Way', excelled at pushing Modern Life Is War away from hardcore cliches, the experimentation this time round is rife. From the distorted attack of 'The Outsiders' to the ugly hybrid of Converge and Motorhead that is 'Young Man Blues' there's little to anchor the band to the scene that has so far contained them. 'Martin Atchet' sneaks great chunks of melody into the guitar mix, 'Marshalltown' is a storm cloud dirge and 'I'm Not Ready' could be the best song Mogwai never wrote if it wasnt for the hoarse vocals sprawled all over the top of it.
Frontman Jeffrey Eaton still sounds uncannily like Rise Against singer Tim McIlrath but the steam-powered intensity of his words here elevate the young singer into a different league. His fantastic lyrics equal his bands desolate noise, hell even the artwork here excels. And still there's a sense that the bands trajectory is ever upwards. There's a feeling that, even though they pull away from trite hardcore formula with every note, they want even further out.
'Witness' isn't blessed with the same frantic speed as the band have employed before, the tempo is slower throughout, but parts of 'John And Jimmy' and 'Young Man On A Spree' prove they can still accelerate wildly at will. The almost upbeat 'D.E.A.D.R.A.M.O.N.E.S' has a touch of pace to it as well and is something of a centrepiece. Surrounded by bleak and draining volume it is a punk-powered and melodic treat. Eaton still shouts himself raw but it feels like he might even be having fun rather than exorcising some bastard demon. Then the squealing, stomping endnote of 'Hair Raising Accounts' arrives as one of the most compelling five minutes that aggressive music has ever produced.
There are only nine tracks here and they blister by in just under half an hour but there's so much passion in the bands delivery, so much caustic brilliance here, that this record takes you on a real journey and the end comes as something of a relief. Until you hit repeat and start again.
Also appears at RockMidgets
WALLS OF JERICHO- With Devils Amongst Us All
Walls Of Jericho are an odd combo. The band have always been bear-trap tight, always hit sufficiently hard and always been worth investigating. But they've never produced enough memorable moments, never really nailed their growling hardcore formula and been truly unmissable. Every second of this record, the bands third full-length, is certainly worth hearing but once again the results are clinical rather than thoroughly clinching. If the band does have a new card up its sleeve then its more of a clear-cut metal influence than before. The Metallica-esque guitar work of 'And The Dead Walk Again' or the fist-in-the-air melodies of 'Try. Fail. Repeat' are highlights. No matter how many tiny hooks they reveal though, it still feels like this music is strictly alright for fighting and little else. You get the feeling WOJ could change anybodys mind in the live arena but on record the band remain slightly tiresome.
