Eisley - Currents

There are only a handful of bands as consistent as Eisley. With each release the band matures and grows. And with each release the band improves and adds to an impressive discography. The band's fourth full-legnth is both something new for Eisley and more of what they've always given us.

Currents is actually quite a departure from the band's previous pop rock work. But the indie/shoegaze stylings on Currents is something that's always been hinted at, just below the surface of some of Eisley's best work. The title track on the band's last ep, Deep Space, was just the beginning of what the band had in store.

There's an open disconnected feeling musically that starts Currents. The song takes it's time to form, giving way to a sense of accomplishment and resolution when the full instrumentation kicks in. It's still has the rock elements that The Valley had but its not nearly as lush. It's a more complex arrangement than anything Eisley has delivered before. Blue Fish has a level of ambience that gives the song an added element to the Eisley's beautiful melodies and harmonies. The Piano riff that runs through Drink The Water is absolutely gorgeous and reminds of why I love Ester Drang's Infinite Keys so much.

Save My Soul is a punchy rock song with a great hook. The string section that glides through Find Me Here is magnificently beautiful. Lost Enemies has a great quirky guitar riff and a cowbell giving the song a nice offbeat touch. Shelter closes out the record and is just another song to die for. Beautiful harmonies and huge sweeping strings.

Eisley has taken a risk with Currents and it's paid off in a huge way. Maybe not the follow-up to the Valley people were hoping for but every bit as good. Currents is a beautiful record. Eisley has outdone themselves again.

On The Attack Records Relaunches

On The Attack Records announces its official relaunch, featuring new bands LIV., Refuge, and All The Departed.  Founded in the Bronx, New York in 2003, On The Attack Records has to relocated to Santa Cruz, California.  New bands.  New intensity. Same positive energy.   Youth Crew, Straight Edge, and Hardcore Only.  

You can download a free 6 song sampler at: 

http://www.indievisionmusic.com/2013/05/29/ivm-presents-on-the-attack-records/

Altars - Something More

I've been a huge Altars fans sing the release of the Strike First Records debut, Opposition. The european metalcore influence of the debut had me hooked. The band switching things up and going the melodic hardcore route on Conclusions didn't stop my fandom. The band was still heavy and the shift in sound was perfect.

On Something More, Altars shifts their style again, and again the band is super successful.

The album's opener and title track, Something More, is a straight up hardcore song in the vein of band's like Comeback Kid and Close Your Eyes. By the time Question Everything finishes, I'm convinced that Something More is a hardcore record. In fact through two songs, Something More sounds like a heavier, better version of Close Your Eyes. But the album begins to shift.

Eternity is a little more like what we heard on Conclusions. Great melodic guitar riff to open the track. The lyrics leading into the breakdown will smack you right in the face.

"Pray for me 
Because we don't see eye to eye 
The word has promised life 
Yet you condemn billions 
Billions to die 
You're committing religious mass genocide"  

The lyrics are a driving point of Something More and Altars gives us some great depth in their lyrics. There's a questioning of faith and the status quo. It's an honest struggle for the listener to hear and even engage in. It's a fresh perspective in Christian hardcore, at least lyrically. And it's nice to hear an album that's engaging  lyrically. The band even takes on the Westboro Baptist Church, with the great message "I will always love you."

Something More is a great hardcore record with a strong message. Altars might not get the same love or press as some of their peers but they should. A band that continues to grow and evolve, and evolve well without taking a misstep, should get credit for trying new things and doing them well without losing what's made them a great band from the start. Something More is another great record from one of Facedown's best artists. 

False Idle - Threat

False Idle's Threat is easily the best album Thumper Punk has ever released. In fact, I don't think it's crazy to say it's the best Christian punk record by a band not named Mxpx in the last 10 years.

Threat has a modern old school vibe. As in it feels like a mid-90's record. It reminds me of old school Offspring, Bad Religion, and Craig's Brother. Threat is a hard biting record.

Sideswipe is a 52 second mosh pit inducing song that kicks of Threat. The feedback moves right into  On Tomorrow, where you mosh pit will continue until you stop to offer your voice on the gang vocal led pre-chorus. Facade introduces a little more melody  and, dare I say, "pop" into the album. One Cause, One Fight is one of my favorites on the record. Less circle/mosh pit and more driving bass line and catchy chorus that made bands like The Offspring and Bad Religion great punk bands. The album's title track sounds like a more punk b-side from Green Day's Warning.

Fans of late 90's punk will love Threat, just as much as I did. There's a little something for everybody. From pop punk elements (without being Blink 182) to fast circle pit songs and great sing-a-longs, Threat will appease punk rock fans.

The Meltdown 117

Skank Into Summer:

The OC Supertones - Adonai
Buck - Truth and Light
Dime Store Heist - How To Program A VCR
The Waffle Stompers - Tired Of It
Just Like Josiah - You Hold The Key
Atombender - A Better Plan
Big Dog Small Fence - Human
Not For The Crowd - Gain Back Lost Youth
The Dingees - 1000 Sparks
Mojo & October Light - Chemical Reaction
Silage - My Car Makes Me Sin
October Light - Long Run
Make Up Your Mind - Break The Plank
Skamikaze! - Gnomes
Buckledown - Not Alone
Good Weather Forecast - Love Revolution
Five Iron Frenzy - New Year's Eve
The Insyderz - Carnival
Flight 180 - Cool World

The Meltdown 116

New music from Devin Shelton, Phinehas, The Appleseed Cast, False Idle, Andy Mineo, and more.

Devin Shelton - Life & Death

I know a lot of people were bummed when Devin Shelton left Emery. While is voice added a great element to the band, I loved We Do What We Want and I felt like his absence didn't hurt Emery. But as soon as I hit play on Life & Death, I realized how incredible an artist Shelton is and how much I loved his contributions to Emery.

Life & Death will make Emery fans who miss Shelton's presence happy. But this isn't Emery part two. At it's most Emery moments, Life & Death has songs that sound like they would fit nicely alongside I'm Only A Man (My favorite Emery record). But there's more depth and diversity on Life & Death.

The album's opener, Cancer, is a beautiful somber, introspective song about a man who loses his wife to cancer and having to cope with a new reality. It's a painful song and an extremely powerful song to start the record.  Surrounded follows that up. A song about dealing with death and losing a loved one. The driving pass line gives way to Shelton's strong voice belting out the hook. Less painful than Cancer but so much more haunting as the loss Shelton sings about hits home to anyone who's lost a loved one.

Across The Ocean is the first Emery-esque song in sound. Shelton's voice haunts, as it teeters on the edge of breaking. Worse is an acoustic song about a cry for help. The opening line grips your heart and if you weren't listening closely, you are after you hear "I told all my friends that I was going to end my own life." Land Mine is a great song that shows how great God is and how small and insignificant we are. Trust feels desperate, and the lyrics reflect what we hear in the music. Devin does a fantastic job of having the music reflect the emotion of each song.

So Far Away is a great worship song about how much we need Jesus. It's the perfect end to the album.

Fans of Devin's from his Emery days will love his record. But more than just being an album by the guy from Emery, Shelton showcases his songwriting ability better than he would've ever been able to do in Emery. Life & Death is a heartbreaking record at times. Devon's lyrics and honest vocals cut deep and leave the listener in pain at times. But the beauty and grace of God wins out in the end.

Hippos of Doom - Road Trip EP

Hippos of Doom is a great band name! Its super ridiculous but it's without a doubt the type of band name that makes me want to check out a band.

The band's new ep, Road Trip,is a fantastic punk/ska album that reminds of bands like Tasty Snax and Value Pac. (Not quite ska enough to remind me of Squad Five-O). Old School Rocking Crew has a fantastic groove with the upbeats on the verse to get you skanking before the gang vocals hit you on the chorus. Wool Brigade and Holiday Road are great punk songs.

Road Trip is a great ep. It's fun punk rock with a twinge of ska. Fans of mid-90's punk rock looking for a reminder of what Warped Tour used to be should check out Hippos of Doom.

You can download Road Trip for free at http://www.indievisionmusic.com/2013/04/23/hippos-of-doom-road-trip-ep/

The Meltdown 115

New music from Twin Forks, Letter to The Exiles, Citizens, Eisley, and more.

The Appleseed Cast - Illumination Ritual

With each and every record The Appleseed Cast shuffles their sound, even if just subtly sometimes. Since the emo infused End of The Ring Wars to the super lush Low Level Owls, to the swooping post rock of Sagarmatha, the band has continued to deliver great record after record, no matter what stylistic change they've decided to undertake.

Illumination Ritual isn't new ground for the Appleseed Cast but more of a reclaiming of things done well in the past and updated. The album's opener is a beautiful example of this. Adriatic to Black Sea starts off with a beautiful post-rock style riff that slowly builds, something the band has excelled at for their last couple of records. But the post-rock gives way to kick into a more classic emo rock sound. It's not the rawness of End of The Ring Wars, but that 90's emo tinge is there. The lushness that the band has given us isn't quite the same, but the beautifully delayed guitar tones still create nice layered melodies.

The intro to Cathedral Rings is a flashback to everything that was great about the 90's emo/indie/post punk scene. Mildly complex drums under a simple guitar riff. The chorus to the song actually explodes and all that is 90's emo goodness comes rushing back. 30 Degrees 3am has a beautiful post rock intro riff before busting into a nice rock grove. At times Illumination Ritual feels like a raw version of Two Conversations or Peregrine.

Illumination Ritual is a beautifully diverse record. At its heart, it's a rock record in the vein of the great 90's emo movement. But The Appleseed Cast does a great job at throwing in beautiful post rock riffs, and layers upon layers of sound that capture your attention and make Illumination Ritual an album to listen to over and over again, discovering something new each and every time through.

No band has ever been this successful growing and changing without ever losing themselves in the process. Another fantastic record from The Appleseed Cast.

Fallstar - Backdraft

I love Facedown Records. And their releases and line-up over the last two years has shown an obvious, and much needed, shift in heavy music. But occasionally you get a band and record to remind you that modern metalcore is still very much a thing.

Fallstar's Backdraft is just that record. There are a couple moments on Backdraft that I really like. Eclipse is a great short song that holds everything that I love about Converge. Drags, Drugs, and Bones is a really good metalcore song. Yes it's formulaic, but it's a solid song. Shallow Believer is a solid, hard hitting song.

But Backdraft just doesn't hold up for me. It's a decent metalcore record but it's just a metalcore record. There aren't enough moments on the record for me to really enjoy the songs. It doesn't have the catchiness of Wolves At The Gate's Captors, or the brutality of Oh Sleeper's Children of Fire. It's a middle of the ground metalcore record. Not terrible... Just not all that special.

False Idle's New Album Threat Out Today.

False Idle's new album is out today via Thumper Punk Records. Official press release below.

     Threat…  Your heart pounds; you feel edgy, like something huge is about to happen…  A mix of hope and fear, like the first step into a war you can’t avoid.  Lucky for you, it’s hope that wins out in the debut full-length release from punk rock powerhouse, False Idle.  This most recent release is a call-to-arms, an anthem for the unknown in a world in decline.  With melodic overtones reminiscent of Rise Against, and a breakneck drive like Anti-Flag, Threat has something for everyone.  Borrowing the mastering magic of Jason Livermore of the Blasting Room, this is a punk rock album that shows a much more mature False Idle.

     After releasing 2 EP’s, respectively Hymns of Punk Rock Praise, and the I Refuse EP, Threat is a poke in the eyeball of this comfortable, complacent American society.  With musical influences as dynamic and unique as the members themselves, False Idle has crafted a collection of songs touching on societal issues like greed, the corruption of politics and media, and even much more personal and poignant issues in family. But there’s nothing like unity, brotherhood, and ineffable hope to balance out the ugliness in the world.  Front-man Sef Idle digs deep on his 15+ years of punk rock, delivering an in-your-face challenge to live for more.  Sef has teamed up again with fellow uniSEF bandmate and guitarist, Tyler Lewis, as well as veteran drummer, Phil Harris, and bassist, Seth Warren to experiment and push the boundaries both musically and thematically of mainstream punk rock.

     False Idle has been steadily asking more of themselves, and it shows in the music and the song writing. Wholeheartedly abandoning the monotony of typical 1-4-5 punk with songs like “On Tomorrow”, “A Tension”, and “Façade”, False Idle keeps the listener on their toes.  With unexpected chord structures and purposefully erratic rhythms, Threat is already receiving attention.  Indie Vision Music, Jesus Freak Hideout, and even HM Magazine have taken notice of False Idle’s previous releases.  With plans for a summer/fall tour of the West Coast, as well as many local shows, False Idle has honed their live shows into an experience that doesn’t disappoint.

     To sum it up, Threat is an album that will leave you demanding more than the status quo, knowing that we’re not alone in this fight.  We stand together in the face of the “acceptable” and draw a line in the sand against the American norm.  It’s time to fight for what we all believe!!

“Threat is a stampede of punk rock assault, that oozes buckets of spiky hair, studded jackets, Doc Marten-wearing punk rock. It sets the bar very high, and certainly puts it as a strong contender for Christian punk album of the year.”  Donovan de Necker (JCHC Slam and Dance Show). 

Benea Reach - Possession

When I first heard Alleviat, I fell in love with Benea Reach. The band might not be setting a trail of fire with a fresh new brand of metalcore but the european metal influence in modern metalcore isn't a sound you get to often and Alleviat reminded me a ton of Selfmindead and Refused.

I was stoked to finally get Possession and give it a spin.

Woodland hits with a similar intensity that Awakening kicked off Alleviat but there's instantly something different about Possession. The song feels more ambient, less compressed. It's has a slightly airy feel to it that's gives it more depth. Don't get me wrong, Woodland is still smack you in the face, knockout heavy. But I wouldn't be doing the track any favors if I didn't mention the dynamic elements.

The Mountain triggers a thought in my head, this record has a lot of similar elements to Extol's The Bluprint Dives. Which is a good thing. Desolate has some great male and female clean vocals that create a beautiful dynamic shift without any tension. Empire is one of my favorite tracks on the record. Beautifully haunting melody and with a killer riff driving the hook.

Possession has more dynamic range and diversity than Alleviat. Alleviat was this great brutal assault with killer metal riffs and went 100 miles per hour the whole record. Possession features a lot more ambient riffs, soaring clean vocals, cleaner screams, acoustic guitars and great dynamics. The record is still super heavy but the diversity opens the songs up and creates a more interesting listen. Benea Reach has given us a great record that was worth the (not too long of a) wait.