A band trying to still legitimize itself after “Cutman” (rightfully) made them a metalcore legend a few years back, HORSE the Band continues on its path to self awareness. The problem with HORSE is that they are still somewhere in between taking themselves too seriously or not taking themselves seriously at all. “Desperate Living,” their debut full length on Vagrant Records, suffers from that same identity crisis but is still a solid album nonetheless.
Those cheesy “Nintendocore” synths are still throbbing and keeping HORSE from becoming too generic, but at times, the rest of the band steals the show. The breakdown in the title track is sure to get kids reaching for their bandanas and floor punching for days (do kids still do that?). I hate using the word “mature” to describe a bands sound evolving, but that’s exactly what’s going on here. Also, using a clip from one of my favorite television shows “Xavier: Renegade Angel,” is going to score some bonus points for them too.
Basically, it boils down to this: do you like metalcore? Do you like ‘80s synths? If you answered yes to either of these questions, this is worth a listen. Synth lines in “The Failure of All Things,” “Science Police” and “Rape Escape” make an otherwise slowly moving album feel fresh and fun all the way up until the end. Also check out Jamie Stewart from Xiu Xiu singing on “Shapeshift.” Those are the highlights of a downright decent album, though honestly without the synth it may have just been another semi-interesting album by a decent band. For the metalcore genre, a boring subset of hardcore, it’s good to see a talented band put out a good album, instead of the tired “screamed-verses-sung choruses-breakdowns-breakdowns-tight jeans-eyeliner-choreographed stage moves-Victory Records cash cow of the week.” Recommended, because honestly, who wants to sit through an album that sounds boring and repetitive? HORSE is always worth a listen, and this album is no different.
Everything these dudes touch turns to gold, in my opinion. There isn’t much A Wilhelm Scream does that shows variety, but who needs that when you have guitar solos that melt peoples faces off? Opener “Australias” shreds just like expected, featuring a finger tapping solo at breakneck speed. “Every Great Story Has A Shower Scene” is a rare bass-driven song, and the dual tracked vocals are punishing. If you have never had the pleasure, A Wilhelm Scream is a band from New Bedford, Massachusetts, and they SLAY. They play a sped up punk/thrash crossover, but they do it with more melody and talent than almost everyone. It sounds like vintage Strung Out mixed with Propaghandi. Read the full story
CD:
1. Cayman Tongue
2. Retina Sees Rewind
3. The Redtrail
4. Air Escapes
DVD:
1. Luminance
2. Retina Sees Rewind
3. Moral Eclipse
4. Juggernaut
5. Dark Driving
6. The Red Trail
7. Cayman Tongue
8. Trepanning
9. Air Escapes
10. Summit Fever
11. Vicious Circles
12. Big Riff
13. Inflatable Dream
Cave In Live!
w/ Trap Them and Narrows
November 19th The Knitting Factory Brooklyn, NY
November 20 First Unitarian Church Philadelphia, PA
November 21 Club Hell Providence, RI
November 22 The Middle East Downstairs Cambridge, MA
New bad-ass Grab Bag songs:
ARMS “Kids Aflame”
ARMS “Tiger Tamer”
Atlas Sound (Feat Noah Lennox) “Walkabout”
Bluebrain “Ten by Ten”
Cat Party “Rhapsody In Black” (from their Bionic Ear session)
Fitz and The Tantrums “Winds of Change”
Matt Pond PA “Halloween”
Mr. Gnome “Slow Slide”
Mr. Gnome “Vampires”
PJ Bond “You Too”
Radiohead “These Are My Twisted Words”
The Soft Pack “Answer To Yourself”
Thomas Function “Belly of the Beast”
- Every week we will be stuffing our little grab bag full of the best new free music from bands you may or may not know. Oh what a surprise you are in store for.
Introduction: Chris from the Young Livers put some thought into his playlist for us. I think out of any of the bands that we have done playlists with I identify the most with this one. Young Livers have leaked the first song from their long awaited sophomore album. You can check out “A Sad State In Affairs” on the band’s MySpace page. I love this band. Read the full story
Introduction: Able Baker Fox’s Nathan Ellis is a hero of mine. His music has followed me wherever I go. If you are lucky enough to discover Able Baker Fox and the rest of the bands that these boys helped to create then you will know how much of an honor it was to interview them.
IRR: How did Able Baker Fox come about? Nathan: The Casket Lottery and Small Brown Bike did a lot of touring together, and the friendship between both bands was almost instant. I’d always wanted to play music with Mike after realizing that he and I write music in a very similar fashion. Unfortunately we’ve never lived close to eachother. The opportunity to be in a band with these 3 guys recently seemed like a possibility with all of the digital recording formats available for us to send song ideas back and forth over the internet. After a quick phone chat with Mike one day, we decided to finally give it a shot. A few emails down the road we made plans to write through the internet, rehearse in Chicago, and eventually record a record. So far we’re on schedule.IRR: Did you guys ever talk about doing a project before both The Casket Lottery, Coalesce and Small Brown Bike broke up, or was the formation of this band a new idea?
Nathan: No, just a new Idea. We did work together on the Casket Lottery/Small Brown Bike collaboration record, and I think we realized at that point that we could/should do something again sometime.
IRR: Who primarily writes the songs?
Nathan: We’ve all written music and lyrics for this project. Its a “band”.
IRR: Can we expect a good mix of both bands – will we hear both the C.L. and SBB and more interestingly Coalesce – it would be interesting to hear some heavy riffage coming through the mix, or is it all totally original to all of you?
Introduction: 
