Four great albums, four short reviews. This time we’re dealing with a stranger bunch and that’s pretty damn exciting. This is the result of a deep dive into Bandcamp new arrivals, all of this albums are hardcore or hardcore adjacent with a few twists and turns of their own. And three of them are Name Your Own Price!
I Drink My Coffee Alone – I Drink My Coffee Alone’s viertes Album, das du dir unbedingt anhören musst (2020)
Wowowowow what is this? It’s an experimental German deathcore solo project that you basically just have to hear because no amount of explaining is going to make sense or do it justice. It’s a solid album with some interesting ideas and an overall flair for aesthetic. It’s spiritually in line with Horse The Band with the eccentric programming and various kinds of synth, as well as the amusing song themes such as Sonic the Hedgehog – which translated poorly through google is quite a read. They’re all decently sized songs with fleshed out ideas happening on each track, it adds a lot of anticipation for each new one. You just keep wanting to go deeper and discover what else is in this toy box of a record. The vocals in particular are superb and travel across the broad styles of deathcore and adjacent genres.
There’s different kinds of cookie monster gutturals, shrieking highs and post hardcore kinda emo mids. There’s thrash/industrial parts as well. It’s quite unpredictable and highly enjoyable… unless you’re some kind of no trends buzzkill, but you’re cool, right? Hey remember this? “Breeeeeeeee!”
Pick Axe Preacher – Extinction Theory (2020)
When I first looked at this album cover I thought “Man, I need to get this game” and then when I read the description of ‘Progressive Hardcore Thrash Metal Band’ then I thought “I need to get the soundtrack for this game”. The music lives up to that notion in a strong way, it’s not quite thrashcore like King Parrot but it’s adjacent as fuck. It has way more of a DIY punk attitude to it. Expect the vocals to be quick and loose, describing various kinds of esoteric conspiracies entwined with some unique narratives. I don’t know what a Pick Axe Preacher is at all. There’s a lot of lyrics here that you can go through to try and figure out what’s going on. Each track is pretty darn chunky, I was at first expecting a kind of grindcore approach but nah these are fleshed out tracks. It’s awesome.
Done To Death – Ecological Catastrophe EP (phase one) (2020)
This is an EP that feels rare in this day and age, it’s an old school hardcore/post hardcore/punk/ska sound that has influences such as No Means No and I’m assuming Unwound and Fugazi era stuff as well. The lyrics are ranty and pointed but relevant to the right now, despite how old it sounds, it’s a brand new release calling out the brand new bullshit. I enjoy environmental focused projects – I not long ago interviewed eco-slam project Extinction, so I’m also happy to find more continuing this urgent theme. It’s kind of crazy to think of climate justice as this underground niche of the alt scene when it’s such a serious threat to everything.
The release not only tackles that issue but attacks quite a few aspects of modern living such as desensitisation to reality and the shitmill that is social media influencers as primary influences in people’s lives these days. This one’s on the level, looking forward to phase two.
SAONI MA – Situation d’urgence (2007)
A super random find on Bandcamp new arrivals, considering it was put out in 2007 but I’m assuming it was only just put on Bandcamp recently which is awesome for me because it’s good and it’s free. It’s French metalcore from the peak of the era where it had a bunch of groove and volatile grind-esque vocal screeching instead of the shitty overproduced clean choruses we get these days. It’s punchy and chaotic, math leaning but not encompassing. It’s experimental and fun with plenty of energy which is what metalcore is all about.
They have quite interesting ways of ending tracks two with weird little manipulations of sounds and distortion, you’ll know what I mean when you hear it, the end is always ear catching which is a unique take on songwriting. I’ll be listening to this one a lot, I’m well hooked, the movement is fluid and tells my limbs what to do.
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