Post-Hardcore – Page 13 – Wonderbox Metal

Violet – The Love/The Lust (Review)

Violet are from the UK and this is their début album.

Violet play en energetic mix of Metalcore, Post-Hardcore and Rock. It’s on the more commercial side of the spectrum certainly, but the passion and enthusiasm is real.

For comparisons think elements of bands such as From Autumn To Ashes, Eighteen Visions, Bleeding Through and Coheed & Cambria.

The band are a six-piece who boast two vocalists, plus vocals from one of their guitarists; they carry a fair amount of diversity due to this. Snarled, Metalcore vocals and clean singing share space with the music being similarly divided between the heavier and lighter sides of the musical spectrum. The clean vocals are sometimes a little too Pop for my tastes, but the shouted vocals make up for this deficiency.

The music is nicely enhanced by keyboards, effects and sounds that give all of the tracks a silken sheen and add a bit of depth to the tracks.

The songs are catchy enough to hold attention, although the sugary cleans can be a bit too sugary on occasion. If they added a little bit more bite to their attack and reined in the more Pop aspects of their sound then in my eyes they’d really be a force to reckon with. On the other hand though, this is clearly an important aspect to their sound that they enjoy and no doubt many others will also.

Overall this is a good début from a promising young band who could feasibly do very well and have a great potential to appeal to a much wider audience than the average Metal band.

Have a listen.

Under the Sun – Under the Sun (Review)

Under the Sun are from France and this is their début album. They play Post-Hardcore.

Post-Metal is a rich genre and an exceedingly varied one. Also, the line between Post-Metal and its sister genres of Post-Rock and Post-Hardcore is a blurred one and can sometimes be hard to define.

Although I’d probably call this Post-Hardcore, strictly speaking it doesn’t really matter which one Under the Sun fall into; what matters is that they play long, exploratory and expansive music based around the darkness of the human mind and the frequently negative emotions that go alongside this.

This is build/release territory and the band are adept at writing a good atmospheric tune. The length of the tracks gives them ample room to manoeuvre and all of the stylistic space is taken up with creating the mood that the band wants you to feel; usually this is one of heartbreak, tragedy and melancholy.

The melodies are luxurious and drawn out, with the band really drawing the listener into the performance. Lighter Progressive Rock passages rub shoulders with heavier Doom sections. A firm sense of dynamics sees the band well through the longer compositions and they inject enough variety to hold interest.

This is a very unhurried album as the songs unfold exactly as they need to. Vocals don’t even appear until the second song as the band are content to largely let the music do the talking. These vocals are essentially Hardcore in nature and lend a chaotic edge to their sound, although some calmer cleans appear also.

Here we have a band echoing the works of the likes of Pelican, Red Sparowes, Erlen Meyer, Mouth of the Architect, Year of No Light, etc.; they take the blueprint and stamp their own identity over it.

It’s hard not to like music that’s played well and has a firm sense of confidence and intent. Under the Sun know what they are doing and know they do it well.

Give them a listen. Well worth it.

Great Reversals – Natural Burial (Review)

Great Reversals are from the US and play Hardcore/Post-Hardcore. This is their latest EP.

The band boast quite the immense sound with guitar riffs sounding like great slabs of granite falling from the sky.

A charismatic vocalist instantly draws the attention and hooks you in. His voice pierces the combination of heavy Metallic Hardcore and the more restrained Post-Hardcore influences to create an aural experience that’s quite invigorating.

This strikes me as the kind of band that would have done very well in the late 90’s/early 00’s; think of a charismatic band from this era, (maybe bits of bands like Skycamefalling and Shai Hulud), and then update the sound with a relatively subtle Post-Hardcore influence and Great Reversals are the result.

This is an impressive EP and I was expecting something less individual and less…striking than this. Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but this is a great little EP and I’m pleasantly surprised by how good it is.

It’s time to show your support – check out Great Reversals and get their EP. Definitely worth a listen.

As We Draw – Mirages (Review)

As We Draw are from France and this is their second album.

As We Draw have developed over the years from a noisy Hardcore band to their current incarnation, which is a combination of Post-Hardcore and Post-Metal. They still have the heavy, angry side to their sound but this has become more expansive and the songs on this album are more varied and atmospheric than ever before.

Their longest song opens the album and it’s a good microcosm for the album as a whole. Aggressive screams ring out over Post-Hardcore music that develops over time to create an angular piece with both aggression and restraint, heaviness and light.

The band appear to have set out to challenge themselves and the listener on this album by creating dark, heavy music that’s no longer confined to the older restrictions that they used to place on themselves by sticking to a more restrained genre than the more woolly one they now work in. Whether you term their music Post-Hardcore, Post-Metal, Progressive Hardcore or whatever, the key thing is that the band have become bolder, bigger and better because of it.

The songs on this album are a joy to listen to and they are the sound of a band embracing their potential and living up to it remarkably. The older As We Draw material was always very good but Mirages is something else. The band truly have taken themselves up to an entirely new level.

This is not to say, of course, that fans of their old material will find this album unrecognisable. Far from it. They’re still the same band; it’s just that now they have turned a corner, so to speak, and they’ve become more than they once were. The foundations that they laid with their previous work have been built on, added to and enhanced. Mirages is the resulting creation and its time is now.

Impressive and far reaching. Fans of stand-out heavy music take note.

Eleanora – EP (Review)

Eleanora are from Belgium and play Sludge/Post-Hardcore. This is their début release.

Intense and fierce; Eleanora pour their hearts into these two tracks and the result is as scathing as it is satisfying.

Dark melodies and throat-ripping vocals are the order of the day. Heavy walls of guitars and solid drums crash and damage the landscape around them.

The vocal performance is impressively energetic and violent. Both the music and the vocals are gloriously passionate and emotive.

This is a short EP of only two tracks, a mere taster really. Consider my palette firmly whetted. This is a superb display of Post-Hardcore/Screamo-influenced Sludge and if this is anything to go by the eventual album that they will hopefully release should see the band become major players in this style of music.

It’s always a great feeling discovering a new, excellent band.

Leather Chalice – Luna (Review)

Leather Chalice are from the US and this is their latest EP.

One track, almost 16 minutes in length; this is a heady fusion of Black Metal and Post-Hardcore.

Luna starts off with samples and noises before slowly introducing the drums and a lightly strumming guitar. Very soon we’re into shoegaze lo-fi territory with the band tentatively picking their way along to a backdrop of strange and unusual sounds.

This abruptly changes to a 70’s inspired piece that has some lovely rumbling bass and emotive guitars. The vocals also start and we’re treated to some real throat-shredding screams.

The guitars have a nice 70’s Progressive feel to them and the whole thing feels analogue and very down to earth. Lo-fi this may be but it’s rich in content and feeling with the band exploring their chosen path with passion and verve.

I love that you can hear the bass and it adds a lot to the song rather then just being under-utilised as in most bands.

As the song progresses things get more upbeat and venture closer to raw Black Metal while keeping the overarching theme of the track intact.

The quasi-Industrial sounds are brought to the fore once more two thirds of the way in before blasting off again for the final run.

I could listen to this kind of music all day. There’s something very honest and open about music which on one hand seems like it has been thrown up quickly and is only held together by the thinnest of threads, whilst on the other hand feeling timeless and like it will undoubtedly endure for a long time to come.

Take a chance, lift the Leather Chalice up and take a good hard listen.

Enola – The Light Fröm Below (Review)

Enola are from France and play Post-Metal.

This is the band’s first EP, although at 36 minutes it’s longer than some albums.

They start off confident and only get more so from here. Post-Metal is such a loose term for a lot of different potential sub-genres that all vaguely fit around the quite open-to-interpretation blueprints left behind by the masters – Neurosis/Isis/Cult of Luna.

After this it’s up to the individual bands to make of it what they will, and even combine with other genres and make wonderful things happen. This is one of the reasons it can be such a hotbed of talent and creativity.

So what of Enola then? Well, as stated above they have made their own way in this now crowded genre and have injected a bit of a Screamo/Hardcore element into the equation and could quite comfortably be termed Post-Hardcore.

The songs are big on melody and atmosphere, created by just the basic instruments. They’re played with a passion and an emphasis on musical exploration and expression of angst and rage tempered with something more subtle.

The Light Fröm Below brings to mind two recent releases I’ve reviewed – Eryn Non Dae and N. Tesla; Enola seem to share common ground with both bands while adding the aforementioned Hardcore influences into the mix.

This is a very accomplished and proficient band; confident too, as stated earlier, as the songs have a strong sense of self and direction you might not always expect from a first release.

The songs have heaviness with an in-built fragility. The vocals share this seeming dichotomy as they are largely rough and angry sounding whilst remaining emotive and open at the same time. There are also frequent spoken words and semi-sung parts that have a clear link to their Hardcore lineage. Clean singing is rare, but when it does appear, (first on The Door), it’s exceptionally handled.

This is a truly remarkable release, especially so for such a new band. It’s bands like this that always make me happy to be into this kind of music. This is a real treat. If this is only an EP then their first album should be devastating.

Do yourself a favour and get this.

Skinwalkers – Fateless (Review)

A bit lighter than most of the bands featured on this site, but Skinwalkers provide a nice distraction from the norm with some good melodies and a line on post-hardcore aggression.

Be warned, they may come across as slightly too poppy for most hardened Metal fans. Having said that this is music that does have some bite as they aren’t purely about the harmonies and tunes, they also show their more hardcore influences. It sometimes reminds me of Cave In in their less heavy moments, only without the proggy influences.

Even though they are a band that you can sing along with, they have a rawness and honesty to them that is pleasing.

If you have the urge to occasionally dip into the realms of the more accessible, yet still want something that has a rough edge then give Skinwalkers a try, you may be pleased with what you find.