Hey everyone! It’s me again! I still write for this gosh darn website, but the plight of being an English-Education major leaves my ability to write on an extracurricular relatively crippled. Thankfully, I’ve been listening to a ton of new music this year, so I’m gonna borrow a page from the Book of Brian Lesmes and highlight some releases that you should definitely check out. Chamber - Hatred Softly SpokenBack in November I wrote a piece for the American Metalcore Project in which I highlighted Biohazard and proceeded to complain about nu-metalcore for about three-fourths of a paragraph. I won’t get into those complaints right now (go read the article to figure out exactly what I hate about nu-metalcore), but I’m glad to see bands like Nashville’s Chamber take the good elements of nu-metal and utilize them in crafting an EP that sounds like it was recorded in an insane asylum. There’s that trademark Korn pitch-shifting, as well as songwriting cues borrowed from Slipknot (not to mention the tasteful biting of Jim Root’s guitar tone) that all serve to create something that pays homage to the two aforementioned bands without sounding dated. FFO: Vein, Sanction Vamachara - DespondentCalifornia’s Vamachara surprised a lot of people at the end of last year when they suddenly announced that they were putting out a full-length on January 5th. Some might find it risky to put out an LP while essentially still DIY and without any “big” support tours, but the band managed to pull it off very well. The band’s sound is very straight-forward: down-tuned, HM2-tinged metallic hardcore in the vein of bands like Eighteen Visions, Disembodied, and Arkangel. While this sound has become very homogenous within the current hardcore landscape, the band’s top-notch songwriting manages to keep them head-and-shoulders above the vast majority their peers. Songs like “Substances Submission” and “Watch You Burn” (the latter being re-recorded from their “MMXVI” demo released in 2016) are good examples of this sound at its best, keeping things dark while also heavy and moshable. Catch them on tour with Twitching Tongues and True Love this month (and bring your dancing shoes too!). Speaking of… True Love - The Pact Fast hardcore is something of a forgotten art these days; there’s plenty of bands still producing the fast, power-chord driven sound that hardcore was originally based on, but they get lost in the crowd compared to a lot of the heavier mosh bands that are popular today. It’s this situation where Detroit’s True Love find themselves at this current juncture, touring in support of Twitching Tongues alongside Vamachara, two bands on the more metallic side of the genre. The Pact isn’t as “traditionally” hardcore as its predecessor, Heaven’s Too Good For Us, resembling something a little close to Lowest of the Low-era Terror over American Nightmare, but the band remain true to the fundamental hardcore sound. Tracks such as “The Other Way” and the title track are packed to the brim with breakneck chords and drums that serve as a great backing to frontman Dominic Vargaz’s impassioned vocals. Could bands like True Love save us from the dreaded horseshoe and bring back the old-school pile on? Here’s hoping. Ecostrike - Voice of StrengthSouth Florida straightedge band Ecostrike’s last release Time is Now was one of my sleeper hits of 2017. Mid-90’s style straightedge hardcore in the vein of Strife and early Earth Crisis? Sign me up. I didn’t think a band could write a better record in that style, but then they went and did it less than a year later. Reading the lyrics from songs like “Still Remain” get me excited to be straightedge like I’m sixteen all over again: “Reaching in, searching for what counts / empty hands grasping in the darkness / find the strength to suffocate my doubts / find the truth; the answer lights my path / ask myself: does the feeling still remain?” But even if you’re not straightedge, the riffs are oozing with energy; especially the opening riff in “Standing Hard,” which is basically designed to get kids side-to-siding into each other. Check it out. Trail of Lies - W.A.R.Few bands have been as important to me over a month-and-a-half span as Syracuse’s Trail of Lies have. Their sound, bearing a resemblance to early Hatebreed and Throwdown, immediately appealed to me, but the band is so much more than just hard breakdowns. What has caused me to admire this band so much over the past few months is their dedication and the effort they put into their lyrics, as well as encouraging audience participation in more ways than just hitting each other in the pit. Watch any recent live set from the band (or actually go see them live for yourself) and amongst the first things you’ll see is vocalist Tom Damiano imploring people to move up and sing along, and they do. Trail of Lies push a message of relentlessness in all aspects of life, and their lyrics reflect that. “Fight For Victory” is the best example of this, declaring that “the mind is your most powerful weapon” before empowering the listener to “control, react, and overcome.” If you’re going through a difficult period in life and enjoy energetic, empowering hardcore, you owe it to yourself to listen to this record, study the lyrics and their themes, and watch a Trail of Lies set and sing along. This band truly is something special. -Cesar Gonzalez
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