This’ll be the first real piece of writing I’ve done in months for the blog, reasons being simple – University work, a new job and an overall writers block. No excuse sure, but meh, this is MY blog after all so blah!!
I haven’t been silent obviously; anyone that’s a follower of the Facebook page (and why the hell wouldn’t you be after all) will know that I’ve been active with sharing updates and the big Advent Calendar project that went on this month. Also something that’s pretty big and awesome news-wise is that it seems I’ve been lucky enough to secure some time to do a proper face-to-face interview with one of our favourite bands on the blog Every Time I Die (hopefully a video interview too!!).
But enough with the catch-up, lets ride the rocket and live in the now, the year’s ending and so that kinda calls for an end of the year, best record/song/whatever list right. Well frankly for me atleast current music from this year has sucked, apart from a few albums (and I mean a few) the year has sucked. So instead of restricting tracks from THIS year, I’m gonna list tracks that I’ve enjoyed this year from any year, just an overall sort of thing – this’ll be tracks that I’ve rediscovered, new tracks I’ve discovered and pretty much be dominated by Dillinger Escape Plan…
1. Dillinger Escape Plan – “Prancer”
OK, was there any question what number one would be, I mean seriously this track has been my entire year – its ferocious and ear-achingly heavy. The screams of Puciato pierce the ears, the lyrics will scald your soul and the passion shown will bring tears to yours eyes. It’s the track that opened up the door for me to Dillinger, and from here, from the second I saw the video of their performance at the Golden Gods Awards show, I was so intrigued and interested that I had to get into them. I did and I’m super happy that I did, it ended up in me having two amazing nights seeing them back-to-back and them destroying it both shows.
2. Savage Garden – “To The Moon And Back”
Sure sure this is an old track, ancient even in some people’s mind, but honestly it was this year that it kinda started making sense to me. I don’t know, but I just sort of gave in and accepted more music this year – and this track was one of the first one’s that I really got into once that barrier of machismo was knocked down.
It’s just a beautiful track, the lyrics are so poignant and hard-hitting, and you know what’s being sung about every step of the way through the 5 minute classic. Not to mention just how damn catchy it is; there’s a reason why it killed in 1995, and then again in 1997, and why it still continues to kill to this day.
3. Eighteen Visions – “She’s A Movie Produced Masterpiece”
It just wouldn’t be a Ghostchant blog post without some 18V shoe-horned in now would it haha. But seriously, this is a song that I never really cared about before this year, heck I didn’t even really care about the entire ‘Until The Ink Runs Out’ album before this year – it all just seemed one-note and very much filler full. But for some reason, at some point this year this song just clicked; it all made sense, the entire concept of the song became clear. It’s a celebration of women, most importantly that one woman that just drives each guy crazy, that girl that a guy will dream about and will lust over. The lyrics are super awesome and standard Eighteen from the fashioncore era – talking about sex and girls and the perceived “cool” things in general. It’s another catchy tune that totally grabs the listener and keeps a hold of them till the track finishes: it could even also be attributed to starting the handlebar dance that James Hart (lead singer) would continue to use till the very last 18V show.
4. College – “A Real Hero”
This song totally crept up on me, from my flatmate randomly putting it on it easily and quickly became one of my favourite tracks ever. I don’t know why - the catchiness of it all? The meaningful lyrics? The fast tempo and overall tunefulness? Its use in Drive? Frankly its all of those reasons, its just a tremendous track that pretty much helped me appreciate this sort of music so much more, which in turn led to my growing liking for New Wave music, which nicely ties into…
5. Depeche Mode – “Stjärna”/”Behind The Wheel”/”Home”/” I Want You Now”/”Little 15”
…Depeche Mode, probably like my #2 favourite band I’ve discovered this year behind Dillinger. Seriously, I don’t know, I’ve always heard of them and have heard some of their stuff (my father’s real big into 80s music and Depeche in general), not to mention it’s the New Wave genre that inspired so many of my favourite bands from today. Specifically it’s the ‘Music For The Masses’ era of the band that really captures me, their darkest album both lyrically and in sound. Hell the music videos they had done were these ominous black and white stories that could destroy a sane persons mind.
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So yeah, there’s a short Top 5 of my favourite tracks that I’ve been digging this year, like I said this year music-wise for me has really been monopolised by discovering Dillinger Escape Plan, getting heavy into Depeche Mode and becoming more emotionally attached to Eighteen Visions’ music. So the question to you people, what the hell have you guys been listening to? Did the Advent Calendar project inject any new favourites to you? Are you guys sick of hearing me going on about Eighteen Visions?
Apologies again folks, last week I was totally run-down, seriously sleep was getting to be a major issue with me getting an average of like 5 hours a night for about 2/3 weeks, and I know that this has led to the blog posts being slower and even a bit shorter. I’ll be honest, these reviews will probably end up being shorter now, I’m undertaking a huge project whilst at University now and really whilst music is there as always with me, I’ve got less time to put more thought and research into it. I’m not saying that these will stop, they won’t, and heck this week I’ve got two gigs (Dillinger Escape Plan…twice) so reviews for them will be up too at some point this week.
Anyway, this week I’m going way back in a time machine – hell I might be going so far back that some people reading this weren’t alive when it was initially released (typing that just made me feel insanely old). This track was a staple to the 90s, you ask anyone that was alive during that time and they will name this song as a great one, and they’d be right; this week I’m gonna review the classic “To The Moon And Back” by Savage Garden.
So first off, obviously this is nothing like the hardcore/metalcore/punk stuff I normally cover, but like I showed when I covered “A Real Hero”, I have a wide music taste and am more than interested in the same music – this blog has never been (and will never be) pigeon-holed by genre or music type.
I said in the opening about this being old and classic, well it really is, being released in 1995 on what quite honestly may be one of the best albums ever crafted, ‘Savage Garden’. It’s only been recently that I really grew to understand this music and to appreciate it for more than just nostalgia purposes; that entire album is incredible, from the vocals of Darren Hayes to the instrumental genius Daniel Jones – the harmonies, the melodies, the lyrics, everything about that first album was spot-on. Savage Garden’s debut will always stand the test of time and always be a gem in any 90s-child’s collection.
And yes, I am a 90s child, being born in 1992 I wasn’t old enough to properly grasp onto music to much later, but when I did I obviously turned to the heavier stuff: but I never forgot about the 90s pop, stuff like “Don’t Speak”, “Kiss From A Rose”, “6 Underground”, bands like All Saints (for real) and Suede that music always stuck in my head and was something of a guilty pleasure. I don’t know what happened, but it was about a year ago, or something when I started getting into New Wave music that this music became less of a guilty pleasure and I was comfortable in openly liking it; my stance as a fashioncore dude was obvious, so there was no reason to push this music aside as rubbish when really I spent my darkest moments listening to it.
The thing about Savage Garden was they were big in Australia before hitting the waves of the US and beyond – so by the time this song was showcased to the US audience in 1997 (two years after the initial album release) they were already somewhat established and started off at the top. This resulted in a number of re-releases of singles and the album as well as a number of updated versions of music videos being made for songs (in the case of “To The Moon…” there ended up being 3 different music videos created for it, and as far as I can tell 2 re-releases of it (one in 1997 and one in 1998)).
It wasn’t until recently that I fully realised how good Savage Garden actually were, like I’ve said that first album is amazing, so many amazing hooks and pops to it – but there a few songs that stand out even more than the rest on this artistic masterpiece. Of course one of them is “Truly, Madly, Deeply”, but that’s overplayed and overhyped; no that’s not the gem of the album, it goes so much deeper with tracks like “I Want You” and “Tears Of Pearls” but the song that I feel really makes the entire album has to be “To The Moon…”. It has all it takes to get a person interested, a catchy as hell pop-hook, lyrics that sound good whether you’re listening in or not and an overall sound that’s soothing and comforting.
The lyrics are compelling: they talk of a girl that has been neglected by the commercial sense of the world, topped off with trying to find love and weeding out the superficial idea of “love” at a young teenage age. Obviously like I said the lyrics are there that if you care enough you can read up and understand them, but if you don’t you can listen and enjoy the song just as much (the relaxed nature of Hayes’ vocals make this even easier to do and digest). Lyrically it’s also been called one of the bands darkest songs, understandable what with every other song they have being about positivity and having a positive outlook and such – this dwells on alienation and even elements of self-esteem issues.
To anyone over the age of 18, you’ll know this song, it’ll be a staple of your childhood – whether you appreciated it then or now or still have yet to really understand its beauty, it will undoubtedly mean something to you. Even if its “Truly Madly Deeply” that is talked about any time the subject of Savage Garden gets brought up, the one song everyone has heard is “To The Moon And Back” and that’s the one everyone loves – whether you’re a goth, a metalhead, a punk, a pop-diva, anything, you WILL enjoy this song, I guarantee it.
Sadly the band is no more now, but Darren Hayes has continued on with his solo work, releasing a number of amazing tracks, “On The Verge Of Something Wonderful” being a great example of a talented worker and even sounds sort of Savage Garden-esque, so go check that out too if you haven’t already.
In the end like I said above, this is a song that transcends genre and music type, this is a track that reaches everyone and a track everyone can relate to and understand, and most importantly enjoy.
“To The Moon And Back” is available at the link below from iTunes, however as always you can get the track at pretty much anywhere that sells anything, though I do suggest that you go buy the album itself, its so good and worth it.
Yeah this is something I thought could be cool to do; after all I am somewhat of an avid gig-goer and like to attend as many as possible and have done so for years now.
So it was last night, Monday the 21st of October and the bill reads like a who’s who of modern radio metal. You have openers Halestorm who have made themselves one heck of a name in such a short amount of time – watch out for them cause they ARE the future stars! Then we go to Shinedown, a band that frankly have become massive since their 2007 release ‘Sound Of Madness’ and for the life of me I have no idea how it happened (I don’t mean that in a bad way), it seemed to happen overnight, and then the big guys, the headliner act tonight was Alter Bridge; a band that I think is best described as this generations Guns N’ Roses – they’re massive and they’re just gonna get bigger!
The cold rainy night outside was illuminated by the green and blue lights of the newly built and newly opened (like literally a week before or something) Scottish Hydro Arena and inside it would hold possibly the most anticipated concert all year for rock and roll fans.
Walking in the arena is awe-inspiring, the hall itself wasn’t too big either, frankly it was smaller than I expected and smaller than a lot of these big arena type venues. It wasn’t long after doors opened that we got our first earful of noise coming from up-and-comers Halestorm. Out stepped this leather and denim clad group of guys you’d expect to see playing these types of show but then out bursts the lead singer, still clad in denim and leather but being female rawker Lizzy Hale.
From the get go all I could think of was bands like Val Halen and Whitesnake, the proper 70s and 80s glam rock – they didn’t have the appearance of it all, but the sound and her voice especially so harkened back to the days of “Jump”. Their set was short enough, they didn’t out-stay their welcome which is something support bands can sometimes do, but Halestorm did what they were supposed to do; they got the crowd ready and warmed up for two bands that are arguably the biggest two bands in modern radio rock/metal. Just to say though, Halestorm will be huge, although still fairly new and fresh they play like a bunch of pros, they don’t shy away on stage and sure as hell don’t fumble their words due to the mass of people watching. They will be the band that takes over the likes of Alter Bridge and Shinedown in 10 or so years.
After a brief, but not too long break to set stuff up the crowd was treated to Shinedown, now I just want to say this is a band I have followed since the very start, the days when they played clubs, hell I remember seeing them announce a show at this small club (King Tuts Wah Wah for those that might know of it) just a few years ago but passing cause I legit didn’t expect anyone to be there. Now 5 years later their here playing this brand new arena, it’s crazy how fast bands can pick up and take off, and like I said above I literally have no idea when or how it happened – it seemed it was with the release of ‘Sound Of Madness’ (a release I was looking forward to so much, I remember gushing over the first reveal of “Crow And The Butterfly”) and just out of nowhere everyone loved them. Sadly with this (and lead man Brent Smiths personal stuff) their music changed from heavy rock to more ballad, almost all softer sounding stuff. They did open with “Devour” though, which tore the building apart, they raced on and broke it DOWN!! Brent’s vocals sounded so raw but so much like they did on record, he had this great presence, again a band that isn’t shy of the sheer mass of people. One thing that did kinda get me and maybe this is just me being an obvious Eighteen Visions nut, but he did look a little too much like an Obsession-era James Hart, decked out in his shirt, waistcoat and suit trousers. But they played a great show, I mean obviously they played a lot of new material which is softer so it wasn’t all to my taste and Brent did like to preach a lot, maybe too much to the point they were starting to outstay their welcome with the crowd, but you couldn’t dis his singing ability (or the instrumentals either), both sounded crisp and so sharp. If they had played maybe some more tracks from ‘Sound Of Madness’ and a few more oldies I would have been much more happier about it, but if you were a fan of them in the current day then I bet you enjoyed the fuck out of it all.
Another standard break, but again nothing that was unbearably too long, and we were then greeted with the ear-piercing voice of Myles Kennedy (Alter Bridge frontman). Playing an incredible 18 song set, the band was able to condense their now decade-long career down to a 90 minute show including all their hits, a nice blend of hard and soft and striking a great balance of old and new material. As usual Alter Bridge’s sound was out of this world good, they clearly have a damn talented team behind the scenes cause they are the sharpest sounding band I have ever seen live: it’s almost identical to their CD stuff.
The first half was almost entirely tracks from the new album ‘Fortress’, which is as always an album where Alter Bridge deliver on major riffage, expand on the current genre and all in all just produce a damn great album. These new rippers came across so well with the crowd; everyone was into them as though they had heard them hundreds of times before. The second half saw a more classic Alter Bridge set played, with jams from all 3 previous Alter Bridge albums having equal weight to the set – it always astounds me how Alter Bridge still play songs from their first album, I literally can’t name another band that has the experience of AB that still play songs off of their first album. Classics like “Ties That Bind” and “Open Your Eyes” get the crowd dying for more, and a track that has become somewhat of a staple of an Alter Bridge show “Metalingus” offers the best 4 minutes of the entire night, everyone in the crowd is waiting for it all night and it even sounds like the band itches to play it all night too; when it was played the crowd erupted, hearing Myles screech and saunter around the stage is just an amazing sight.
The night came to a close with an acoustic version of “Watch Over You” performed by both Myles and Lizzy Hale: somehow a moment that could’ve been sappy wasn’t, if anything it seemed to be a perfect start of the end. From here the band dove back into their bag of oldies pulling out 3 more tracks, one from each previous album, sending the crowd home more than happy.
Verdict-wise I’d say that the price I paid for this was well worth it, I mean I kinda wanted more from Shinedown, I didn’t expect to hear “Fly From The Inside” or “I Dare You”, but I just wanted more I guess. In all though I’d say it was a super fun show, and if you ever have a chance to see any of these bands, in particular Alter Bridge, do yourself a favour and go for it – it’ll be the best money you spend in a while.
So cause I've got a gig tomorrow night, which is when I normally like to do these and upload ‘em, I thought I’d do it today so I didn't miss it (plus I’m hoping to get some sort of review up on the gig on Tuesday or something).
This week I’m staying with the vibe of hardcore punk and go with the Canadian rockers, Cancer Bats and one of their bonus tracks of the latest re-release of ‘Dead Set On Living’. The original album I thought kinda lacked, it seemed to go down the route of more pure metal and lost what attracted me to the Bats from the start, which was their punk edge. When the album was re-released a few months later though, they added a bunch of new tracks (as well as a haul of Black Sabbath covers under their alter-ego band Bat Sabbath) and these tracks really pulled back this punk edge, and seemed to be packed full of the hardcore feeling the tracks on ‘Hail Destroyer’ had. The one stand-out of all of these extra tracks has to be “Sonic Mind Assault”, a song that seems to call-back to the days of ‘Birthing The Giant’.
Like I said, this track does seem like it comes from a different vein than the majority of ‘Dead Set On Living’, this one sounds more akin to what we heard on early albums like ‘Birthing The Giant’ and ‘Hail Destroyer’; faster and louder tracks as opposed to longer and more metal-sounding riffs. The most note-worthy thing about “Sonic…” is the fact that it doesn't even hit the 2 minute mark (heck it barely hits the 100 second mark) making it the shortest Cancer Bats track since “Pray For Darkness” from the ‘Hail Destroyer’ album.
The track starts off with some sludgy as hell guitar riffs, and dives straight into the vocals from there, showcasing frontman Liam Cormier’s screaming abilities more so than any other song has ever; these screams are visceral and come straight from the pit of a dark-man’s soul. I personally have never heard Liam scream with so much fury for such a length of time ever, he literally keeps it up for virtually the entire song, that’s some feat for anyone!
Instrumentally the song is chaotic; crashes and bangs, drum smashes and guitar thrashes, this song sounds like a car-wreck. I don’t mean that in a bad way either, it complements the screams of Cormier perfectly - you could even say that it justifies the out of character guttural vocals.
The instrumentals are also so damn fast, so fast that the song finishes before the listener even has a chance to totally get into it; everything is 110 miles per hour in it, loud and fast! This could be a bad thing for people that aren’t used to this style of song (I suppose we can call it the Ramones-style), but for those that are into it and understand it, damn are you gonna love it and just eat it up again and again. The main background melody is incredibly groovy too, guitarist Scott Middleton really keeps this tune going and creates somewhat of a backbone for the entire song with this repeating line. Also, I don’t know if it’s just me, if it’s deliberate or even just my speakers but this line really does sound louder than everything in the song; if it was a mixing thing or whatever, I don’t know it just seems like this line really does take center-stage. Another thing that’s pretty interesting is that there’s no real breakdown, for a hardcore song that’s strange, but then again for a song that really does travel at lightspeed it’s understandable.
“Sonic…” has actually gone on to become something of a fan favourite track, already making its way into the bands regular gig setlist, which is pretty rare these days for a band to include a b-side into their show’s set. One of the biggest contributors to the quick assentation to popularity this song has taken on is the music video that was created by bass player Jaye Schwarzer, a short (obviously) video made up of classic horror movie clips and stock footage. It’s weird, creepy and suits the song down to a T. I’m no film student (game student actually) but the quick cuts really do aid the song, even making the song seem MORE frantic if it’s even possible – Jaye really did create a great video here, not only does it do what a music is supposed to, which is to be addition to the song (not making the song secondary), but it’s also clearly worked as a great marketing tool as well.
This song, though not being an official single or even an original album track has seemed to grow to be one of Cancer Bats most loved jams. It pulls in all the forces of a Cancer Bats song, hell in a way its Cancer Bats condensed and stripped down to what they have always been and what every song they record will ever be; it’s loud and it’s chaotic. You can add on length, you can add on solos and you can add in guest vocals but in the end Cancer Bats will always be a fast hardcore punk band and this song demonstrates this so damn well.
Right now Cancer Bats are raging through their own country of Canada, touring like they always are, if you’re a fan of the band or even if you've just discovered them because of this review and song, believe me you’ll have the opportunity to see them soon enough, and I suggest that you do; their live shows are second to very VERY few and you’ll always have a good time.
Until next time: Peace!
“Sonic Death Assault” is available at the link below from iTunes, however as always you can get the track at pretty much anywhere that sells anything. You can obviously also buy it on CD - the Deluxe Edition of 'Dead Set On Living' is out now, so get a hold of it if you like physical stuff.
Time for another instalment of Track Of The Week, and this week I’m looking at a new release that if you’re a fan of the Ghostchant Facebook page (like it if you don’t) you’ll know how much I’ve been digging.
This week see’s the release of the new, and poorly advertised if I’m honest, Fall Out Boy EP titled ‘Pax-Am Days’. This release is getting a lot of talk (from the few that know about it) for two key things; one is that it’s produced by Ryan Adams and was recorded in his LA studio and is released under his label, ‘Pax Am’. The other is that it harkens way back to the days of hardcore punk music, something the band has lost focus of since their early releases.
The words “fast”, “loud” and “punk” are words that have been words lost to Fall Out Boy fans for years, hell it might be a stretch to say that the band has NEVER recorded anything this brutal or hardcore ever. Now, I know I said “brutal” and obviously they haven’t totally changed into some metalcore/deathcore band with this release, no this still has the classic Fall Out Boy charm and flourish, only difference is that its faster, louder and yes, more punk.
The track “We Were Doomed From The Start (The King Is Dead)” is what I’d say is the stand-out track, maybe add “Love, Sex, Death” in there too, but the rest do however seem to sound like filler; not to say they’re bad, but just seem to work and be there as opposed to doing anything major for the album.
This track is fast, clocking in at just over 90 seconds, and 15 of those are a voice-over sample at the start! The pace is so rapid, after the opening sample the bass instantly starts chugging the classic punk 3-chord and doesn’t stop. Its loud too, the guitars aren’t complicated, it’s a simple sounding thrash of those punk chords again and Stump’s vocals blister the sonics trying to keep up with the frantic guitar, bass and drum smashing.
The vocals of the song are VERY minimal, with only a few lines alternating away from the shrieks of “The King is dead!” . One thing that really stands-out too about the song is that even with this insane bass line throughout and the rest of the punk-sounding instruments is that they don’t really sound punk, if that makes any sense. This kinda goes for the entire album, but the entire thing still sounds punk-pop somehow, I mean they have the hardcore sound, it’s totally punk but in a polished, more commercial sense. No hate from me, I guess when you’re a massive band like Fall Out Boy you can never really do “DIY punk”, can you, it’ll always have this sense of polish and style to it.
The best part about this entire track, for me at least, has to be the bass line that Wentz pumps out and keeps in the forefront of the entire song; this is in no way surprising, Wentz I think has always been a hardcore (even metalcore) guy at heart, go listen to his early work, especially the band Arma Angelus. Like I said, the instrumentals seem to almost be impersonating those of a hardcore punk band, but still they do have the sound and substance to there, they clearly know what they’re doing and HOW to do it. This does fall-over to the vocals of Stump too, though he doesn’t like a Rollins, a MacKaye or a HR, his voice still sounds like it’s always done, but it suits the music; like everything about this track (and EP) it makes sense.
In the end of it all, this is a release that sounds enough like Fall Out Boy to keep their current fan-base interested and excited, yet is different enough that it entices and brings in people that have fallen out of the whole Fall Out Boy thing.
It has the hardcore elements and punkness to it that it’s hard and loud but it’s got the polish and style to keep it in the realm of what is acceptable for the band’s sound. The whole EP is a work of art, and that’s coming from someone that really did hate ‘Save Rock N’ Roll’, but somehow the band has rectified this and made a hell of a go at taking a different route, even if it’s just with this one release. And that’s the thing, I’m in no way expecting to hear this become the “new” Fall Out Boy sound; I’m not gonna go into the next album expecting an OFF!-like album full of 60 second songs. No, I see this as just a fun little release by a bunch of guys that maybe wanted to release a record that showcased this fun; what would be nice is that the band take some aspects of ‘Pax-Am Days’ and try to apply it to future releases, not to change their sound but just experiment.
There is a place for hardcore music in today’s world, if nothing more this track and release proves this to be fact.
“We Were Doomed From The Start (The King Is Dead)” is available at the link below from iTunes, however as always you can get the track at pretty much anywhere that sells anything. There will actually be a limited vinyl release of the entire album at some point too (sorry, not too sure when).
Last week I looked at a track that was totally out of my comfort zone and like I said during the review, it was almost the stark-opposite to anything that I had done before on the blog. Now however I think I’m gonna go back to some familiar ground and cover a track more in vein of the hardcore/metalcore that I have tackled before; Vera Cruz’s “Break The Lies”.
So, to start off I’m guessing very few (if anyone) reading this even knows of these guys, let me fill you in; these dudes are a French band that rose to popularity on the underground scene because of raucous live tours with those Canadian work-horses Cancer Bats. They are fuelled with the same fury that these guys are and even have a similar sound, maybe the only difference being that the vocals are more influenced by punk rock whereas the Bats’ are more akin to metal.
These dudes are real nice; I think I’d say I’ve become one of their biggest supporters and news spreaders, hell I’d even say that I’m a mega-fan and a friend of the band. I remember reading about these guys when they were announced as the support for a Cancer Bats show I was going to in 2010. They had this EP up on their MySpace site for free, ‘Surviving Farah Fawcett’ which included 4 tracks so I went ahead and downloaded it, see what these guys were about. I was instantly blown away and ended up like throwing this download at my mate that was going with me to the Bats show and told him to listen. We were both in awe, and ended up being just as psyched about seeing Vera Cruz as we were to see the Cancer Bats!!
The show was excellent; the venue was this tiny bar and was packed full of 300 sweaty hardcore punk men ready to spend the next 2 hours banging into each other and they had the right bands to go it to. This was the gig that made me addicted, and there’s this one moment that stands out even to this second that I don’t think I’ll ever forget: then lead singer Flav got straight into my face and we both screamed at each other, it was something that changed music for me from being a nice pass time to a necessity. Their set ended with a bunch of us in an on-stage mosh pit and embracing the band, accepting them into this world of acclaimed hardcore, I know for a fact that the band cherish this performance and see it as a welcoming (and invitation for as many future shows as possible) to Scotland.
So now that’s been done, lets actually look at the track; “Break The Lies” comes straight from the band’s first (and so far only full album release) ‘Skinandteethandnails’, released in 2012. It’s actually a re-recording of a track that was released about a year earlier on the EP ‘Rise And Deny’ under the title of “I4NI”; mind you not too much is different apart from a shortened intro and better quality of recording.
In my honest opinion I’d go ahead and say that it’s the heaviest track that Vera have ever recorded, and I’d even say that it’s probably the best song they have in their arsenal. Record-wise its easily a stand-out track; it’s one of few faster, more non-stop 80’s hardcore-like tracks on ‘Skinandteethandnails’. When it comes to live shows, having personally heard this jam live (and even sung the last part *yep, I’m shoe-horning in an achievement haha*), the fast quality the song has in its recorded format really pushes through when played live, the fans need this and it goes over much better than a more methodical and slower type of hardcore song. To put its importance into a simple way of thinking; Vera Cruz playing “Break The Lies” live is like Black Flag playing “Fix Me” or “Nervous Breakdown”, it gets the crowd going and moving which is obviously imperative to a hardcore punk show.
The instrumentals of the song really are heavy and fast; the guitars chug along and just seem to speed everything up and keep a sense of urgency going through-out the entire 3 minutes and 23 seconds. The drums do an even better job of this, with the frantic smashing of the skins hammering through, the speed of these are seriously something that needs to be heard. To complete this sense of velocity the vocals given off by former lead singer Flav are simply beautiful, he screams like his life is depending on it; from the opening beat to the final guitar strum Flav’s voice is almost constant in this track.
Keeping up this speed isn’t easy, especially in a genre where breakdowns are something that’s a must, and yeah this song has breakdowns used to slow the song down but somehow the band literally blow right through these and seem to not stop or slow down at all. It’s something I’ve never seen or heard before, the song slows down but doesn’t!
Lyrically I can only assume that “Break The Lies” goes to cover the subject of revenge and going out for yourself by taking back what is yours. As always with lyrical interpretations this is something that I’m doing by just reading the words and taking out what I get, these in no way are definitely what is trying to be conveyed. Obviously the fury of the delivered vocals and the overall sound of the song also help thrust this idea of revenge and maybe even barbaric revenge forward.
Like I said before, I’ve heard/seen this track performed live and it really is a sight, hell this band live as a whole is a sight that if you EVER get the chance to see them, do yourself a favour and go. Keep in mind this was with former lead man Flav, I haven’t seen new vocal man Thierry Ruiner shred his throat yet (but I will next month), but the energy that was given off during this song was amazing. Flav seemed to spend more time in the air than he did on the ground, guitarists Florian and Greg explored the stage to the fullest, with Greg reminding me of Greg Puciato of Dillinger Escape Plan with his climbing of amps and jumping into the fans and taking to the back of the room to rage. Not missing out drummer Yoann, obviously drummers don’t get the chance to give off much of stage presence but the playing was top-notch and seemed to go even faster than the recorded version.
Vera Cruz ARE the future of metalcore; they are slowly but surely building a fanbase and reputation for being a kickass, no nonsense band (both on-stage and off) and really do have what it takes to conquer the hardcore world. This song is just the tip of it all, they have a new record coming soon from what I understand and with a pretty major UK tour starting up next month, these French dudes are clearly putting the work in and we’ll see what happens in 5 years or so when bands such as Every Time I Die and Converge are maybe winding down and see who takes over: I’d bet all that I have that Vera Cruz will be up there.
"Break The Lies" is available at the link below, sure you can buy it from iTunes but Bandcamp is more beneficial to the band so that's why I'm using this this week, but its also available from pretty much any site the sells anything these days too (including iTunes).
So last week was Eighteen Visions Week, and it went really, really well, like REALLY well!
By the end of the week the Facebook page was being talked about by 86 people and the page itself garnered quite a good amount of new likes, but most importantly I was able to get the different interviews actually out there for folk to enjoy that weren’t part of the site or didn’t follow Ghostchant; the James Hart interview in particular got a huge increase in views and has become one of the most popular posts I’ve made on the blog so far, so I’m glad that people are at least getting this put to them and being able to read them, which after all is really the entire point of my interviews and who I choose to interview.
It was a great success, though I didn’t have time to actually write my retrospective which was something I’ve wanted to do for so long (since I started the blog) and I hoped last week I would finally get to crack it but sadly I didn’t, and the interview with Javier Van Huss, sadly I haven’t gotten anything back yet but whenever I do, it’ll be put up (like every interview) straight away for your prying eyes.
Now, onto the point of this post: this week’s Track Of The Week, which if you’re a follower of the blog you’ll know what that means, but if your new, simply every week I pick a song that I haven’t been able to stop listening to all week and I review it (what I think about it, what it means to me, the lyrics, the sounds, that kind of stuff). I’ve always said I don’t want to pigeon-hole this blog into a metalcore blog, or a heavy music blog or even a rock music blog; I have quite a wide range of musical taste, I mean heavy music (and metalcore) is at the core and heart of it all but sometimes there are songs that don’t fit into that genre that I still fall in love with. This week I’m stretching that boundary further than I think I have (and probably will), but I just had to choose this song, for the last week I have literally not been able to turn this track off, no matter what, it’s been in my head since the second I heard the first beat.
This week I’m gonna tackle reviewing a song that’s cut from the same cloth as the 80’s synth-pop stuff (Depeche Mode for example); College – “A Real Hero”.
So yeah, why pick a song that is almost in stark opposite to what I’ve spent 3 months writing about? Honestly I’m not too sure, for the last maybe 7 months to year I’ve become really interested in the whole 80’s New Wave sound, with bands like Depeche Mode, The Cure, Joy Division and Echo And The Bunnymen being the front running bands that I was super interested in. The entire sound was just something that appealed to me; every song seemed to create this mood and atmosphere and for me personally, when a song creates an over-arching sense of tone that transcends the sonics and does something to the listeners’ head, that really gets me excited and immersed.
“A Real Hero” blows the dust off this technique and applies it so well, and rather than heading for a tone of sadness or depression like a lot of New Wave/snyth-laden tracks, College goes down the route of happiness and joy; the whole track embraces a sound that has this feeling of triumph and celebration, even the lyrics (which I’ll look at it in bit) are about a positive and joyous event.
The synth and electronica drive of the song, though poignant and imperative, for me the most exciting aspect of the track is the vocals; not to get too soppy, but they are beautiful and help the backing instrumentals reach high and hit that feeling and tone that the song strives for. They’re soft and have this element of vulnerability that I think is easy for the listener to connect with and again helps immerse them. Remember, this is coming for a guy that listens to primarily metalcore and heavy rock music; so for me to feel and even border-line get emotional with this song, it obviously does the trick.
Lyrically the song is about a famous airplane pilot, Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III, that successfully was able to pull-off an emergency landing with a malfunctioning plane into the New York Hudson River, saving 155 lives in the process.
This is obvious by the multiple references made (“One hundred fifty-five people or more”, “All safe and all rescued”) but it also seems to focus just on the simple idea of not necessarily doing something “heroic” but something “good”, for others and the courage it can take to do something that’s selfless; again not to get too soppy or personal about stuff, but this totally strikes me hard (immersing me in the song even more).
Probably the biggest thing about this song is that it was used in the film ‘Drive’, and featured on its soundtrack. It’s actually how I heard it; last week one of my flatmate’s put on some music (probably cause she was sick of hearing Eighteen Visions) when we were away to start baking, and seriously when it started I immediately looked at her and gasped “what the hell is that?!!” and she legit looked at me like I was mad or something, and kept on questioning if I was being sarcastic.
I’ve not actually seen the film yet (hope to watch it soon) but one thing I really enjoy is when a film gets an exclusive soundtrack that isn’t just a collection of previously-released songs but songs that actually make sense and add to the experience of the film, and with what I’ve heard the ‘Drive’ soundtrack does exactly this.
I’ll admit that I’m probably not the most savvy person to review a snyth-pop track, but I do know what I like and I know what I don’t; and I really like this track. Like I said, when I told my friend I was totally into the song she was shocked and took it as a joke; thing is, in reality the current wave of metalcore and other heavy bands actually grew-up on this stuff and it wasn’t just the Metallica’s and Black Sabbaths, the Depeche Mode’s and The Cure’s were as big as an influence as the metal bands.
Obviously College had heard their fair share of 80’s New Wave and understood it when going into recording this; the lyrics and vocals are just as important as manufacturing this idea of an atmosphere, even if it’s just for 3 minutes, the listener is ‘in’ the song and reacting to every beat and every high-pitch chime.
All in all, I suppose I can just say not to dismiss this track (or any song for that matter) because of your “music taste” or what you normally listen to; give the song a listen, you never know you just might fall in love with it like me, and find a song that fills a hole inside.
"A Real Hero" is available at the link below, where you can buy the official single version via iTunes, but its also available for pretty much any site the sells anything these days.
So this is the third edition (I guess that’s the right word) of ‘7 Of The Best’, where I take one band and review my own personal favourite seven tracks. It’s more informal and really me just summing up songs and what I like about them and why I feel they are some of that specific bands best tracks.
When I’ve done this in the past I really enjoyed it, but the thing was that when I got down to the last few slots, I found it somewhat difficult to choose songs; down near the 5/6/7 mark its songs that maybe I really really like but for most of the bands (at least any that I’d spend significant time reviewing) there are many songs that fall under this category, I guess it’s what happens when your obsessed with music haha.
But for Eighteen Visions it’s not been difficult at all, in fact it’s been the opposite where I found myself trying to fit in my favourite tracks and it just wasn’t enough. Initially I figured maybe making it 10 of the best or something, but then I felt that would end up in being a massive wall of text and no one would read it, plus it took any real fun away *plus I still found it hard to narrow down*. Then I thought I could make it more fun, I could take a look and review some tracks that are maybe lesser known, still tracks that I love and consider favourites, but songs that maybe aren’t as known (for example pre-Trustkill releases, covers and b-sides).
I’ve tried to include something from every release and every era of the band to try and show the obvious diversity of the band but also the evolution and maturity that the band went through and how they became what they did.
Meh, enough with the reading, time to get listening.....and reading I suppose
“She’s A Movie Produced Masterpiece"
So, I’m starting off with a track that everyone can relate to, well every guy at least. Before I get to the actual song, those lyrics; this song effectively acts as love-letter to woman everywhere, but most importantly that one girl that every guy is crazy about and cannot stop thinking about -that “blonde bombshell, blue eyed beauty”.
On to the track, James’ lyrics are amazing, what strikes me about the whole of the ‘Until The Ink Runs Out’ album is that it’s all about beauty, sex and girls in general (their phrase at the time being that they were the best at “sex, hair and rock n’ roll!”). Like I said, everyone can relate to the lyrics, they can understand them and can picture that girl in their mind, plus after all isn’t the dream of every guy to be with that one girl they dream of?
The song is slick, cool and most importantly super catchy; it’s got this metal-groove driven sound through-out and just makes the listener want to get up and handle-bar the nights away. It’s also got so many breakdowns that just burst through on the other side and also kind of stays with one set pace and tune, which was something that Eighteen hadn’t really done too much up until this point and record.
Oh, the song also starts off with a quick quote from Back To The Future, which I absolutely LOVE!! I’ve talked about adding in sounds outside of instruments during a song (a lot on the Nine Inch Nails article) but if there’s one thing I love more is adding in movie quotes; if done right it can literally make a song for me.
I can’t really remember the first time I listened to this, I think this was one of the tracks that I got into when I first started looking into 18V, but I suppose I never really ‘felt’ it until I took a proper serious look into the bands entire back catalogue and took an interest in the whole fashioncore thing.
“There Is Always”/”Notes Of My Reflection”
First off these are two different songs, but appear on the same album and both carry out the same function to the album. They are used as preludes/outro’s to different songs as well as offering the listener somewhat of a breather to what is a pretty damn heavy album (‘Vanity’).
“There Is Always” first off is seriously one of my favourite songs ever by any band, frankly behind “Vanity” and maybe “Motionless In White” I’d say this could well be my favourite song ever. In a word, it’s beautiful. A short, 117 second instrumental rendition of the theme for 1964 film The Manchurian Candidate, this song just does something to me, I don’t know what but it seriously grabs me somewhere inside my soul and pulls away at the strings. There have been many times where the song has made me emotional, legit emotional. It’s got this sombre feel to it, I know I say this about pretty much every instrumental that I review, but it does have this sinister side to it though this one doesn’t seem too sinister and kind of goes down the path of more sad and sombre tones.
As for “Notes Of My Reflection” this isn’t as impactful, at least for me, I mean it’s a good way to connect two songs and keeps the feel of the entire album going through-out but for me it doesn’t have the same emotional connection. The song keeps this almost rap-like beat through it, which was something that really scared me off and made my hesitant to even listening to it, but once I listened to the album all through I realised its purpose and instantly ‘got it’ then.
These two tracks seriously make the entire album a whole package; it’s not a collection of just a few good songs and a bunch of filler but rather a proper album where all the songs make sense and have their place, something that I think has always kinda been a problem in music.
“All We’ve Got”
Now this I think was the last official Eighteen Visions song ever released, being released in 2007 on the Trustkill Takeover compilation. Frankly I think it’s one of the best songs they recorded during their Glamcore phase; it has an amazing pop-hook that leads greatly into what could be one of the catchiest choruses ever!!
James Hart’s vocals may have never been clearer either; sonically I guess it’s kind of like a cross between the slow emotional “Tonightless” with the faster paced, hard rawking “Victim”; it’s got the whole 80’s ballad thing down to a T. Honestly I would have put this on the self-titled 2006 album over a number of the songs that actually did make the cut (not saying that the album is bad or that any of the songs are bad per-say, just that “All We’ve Got” is simply a great example of the band in their new element).
It’s not the easiest song to find, the comp came out 6 years ago and even then it’s not like Trustkill was the biggest record company going but I would say that the look is worth it and it could be one of the best b-sides I’ve ever heard. Nope, I’m not just saying that and I’m not being biased, I seriously feel that the entire sessions for their 2006 album resulted in the most rounded off album and some of the best music to be produced ever.
“Dead Rose”
An example of Eighteen’s early deathcore phase (where they pretty much invented the damn thing), this track is an amazingly angry take on love, and how fickle it is and how so many people take advantage of another person that they are supposedly “in love with”. Something that I love about Eighteen is how I can actually relate to their lyrics, I had never listened to a band that had me caring and feeling what was being said. (I had tried so hard with Rise Against, trying to understand and frankly just care about the whole political side of things and to be honest I couldn't, I loved the music of the band, still do but the lyrics were always something that meant very little to me with them.) The fickle and almost superficial side of “love” is something that truly irritates me and is something I’d say I see way too much, but this is getting too personal I think. The song is great; it’s got that quality that so many of the early Eighteen songs had which is unpredictability and a rapid change of pace and sound through-out the entire track. Plus this being from their first album, ‘Yesterday Is Time Killed’, James was still a screaming machine whose throat literally seems to be able to take any form of punishment and by the sounds of some of their earlier tracks, it could.
As far as I can remember this was a song that I just instantly liked, but once I got into the band more and really started to listen and get the lyrics, it just became so much more to me, not to mention my own views and feelings changing around this time too.
“I Let Go”
I’m pretty sure this is THE Eighteen Visions song that no matter who you let listen to it, fan or not, new fan or old fan, no matter the listeners music taste they are gonna love this song!!
It has everything; it’s got the gritty, heavy chugging guitar and bass in the background of a pretty mellow(er) sounding main guitar tune that skips along. The hooks are insanely hooky; they grab you from the very start and don’t let you go till the very end. James sings as opposed to shouting, yet there’s still somehow a heaviness and coarseness to his voice that makes the song appeal to fans of the scream. All in all this is a song that everyone will love and will just get immediately.
This was actually one of the first Eighteen songs I had ever heard, I know for sure that it was their first video that I had seen, but I have this clear vision of sitting drawing out wrestlers (it was 2006 and I was 14, leave me alone!!) and I remember watching the music channel The Hits and this video came on where these cool, slick looking guys come bursting through the doors to some mansion and proceed to tear this “End Of The World” party apart. I do remember going online like the next day and hunting Limewire (for real, those days haha) for anything Eighteen Visions, so I suppose this might be classed as the first time I looked into 18V then.
“Sacrilegious Murder”
Taken from their first release, ‘Lifeless’ – EP, “Sacrilegious Murder” is a damn scary track if you’re not used to this sort of music; lyric-wise it seems to tell the story of Christ and his death, but honestly I’m just taking a stab at it whilst reading the lyrics myself. During the early releases Eighteen were your ordinary hardcore band that screamed about death and murder, it wasn’t until ‘No Time For Love’ and the addition of the fashioncore style that I feel James started writing proper feeling songs. Now I’m in no way saying that ‘Lifeless’ is bad, but it’s one brutal ass record, pretty much helping invent the whole genre of deathcore from what I understand; this isn’t anything like “All We’ve Got”, hell it’s even a far cry from “Vanity” and others from that record, this is some intense ear-bleeding stuff.
Onto the song though and honestly I’m not too sure what to say, I mean it’s probably my favourite from this EP, it has this great chugging sound that’s continuous and James’ vocals are heavy and gritty but fit the song and this sound down perfectly. The track also starts off with a short sample from the film Se7en, so again I instantly liked it haha, but it’s just the screams of a man and damn it to hell it makes so much sense in this song and again this entire album.
I will be honest, this was the last album of theirs that I got into, and even now I need to be in the right mood to listen to it otherwise it just hits me way too hard. Though when you listen to something like this and then compare it with a song off of ‘Eighteen Visions’, then you can totally appreciate just how much this band had actually evolved in the 10 years they were together.
“Who The Fuck Killed John Lennon?”
For the last of the seven I went with one of my absolute favourite songs ever; taken from the same album as “She’s A Movie Produced Masterpiece” this track just oozes this cool swagger, slick motherfucker kind of vibe the band was starting to embrace at the time (*fashioncore* *fashioncore* *fashioncore*!!). Obviously lyrically it talks about the death of John Lennon and how it was a travesty and what the world ended up potentially losing out on.
“Who Killed…” is such a stand-out track from ‘Until The Ink…’, hell that entire album just has this aura and feeling of change about it but this song is just something else, it showcases the newly recruited Keith Barney’s hardcore chops (already well-known at this point) in his thrashy guitar work yet he still seems to bring this sense of tune and melody to a song and makes it more of a song and less of scream-fest. Honestly I feel it was adding in Keith that legitimized Eighteen, and his work in the band really helped make them so much more than I think they maybe ever would have been without him. The slow breakdowns, the fast choruses, heck even some vocals from James that are understandable without the aid of the lyric book; this was for sure a song that pushed Eighteen into the fans eyes and widened their audience.
Annnnnnd the ending includes another signature that the band used a lot from their early days, including movie samples, only this one was the full near 2 minute theme music from the original Shining teaser trailer (the one where the elevator doors spew the blood, they actually labelled the song “Elevator Music” *shinfo*). Though this was used for the vinyl pressing of the album as a way to silence the Side A off and bring it to an end, it remained on the mp3 and CD versions of the album attached to “Who Killed…” so I guess it counts, right?
Yep, that’s it over and done with now, so much damn writing but I did say I was gonna take this Eighteen Visions week way too serious haha. Really enjoyed doing this, even if it was a little too hard to review some of the lesser known tracks, but its 18V so all was good!!
I think that I atleast was able to show that this band of “rock and roll kids who played metal music in a hardcore band” really did cover a whole lot of ground in their decade-long career and pretty much ventured into every nook and cranny of rock music.
Hopefully any fans of the band enjoyed this list/review thingy but if you have a different list, let me know, don’t fret in posting it up. Post in the comments, post your own list or head on over to the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/theghostchant).
I do want to start off by saying sorry about last week; I was kinda busy and really not feeling too great (insomnia and stuff), but I’m back now and to make sure that there’ll be a huge amount of stuff up this week, I’m going to name this week ‘Eighteen Visions Week’, so expect a good amount of stuff up this week.
So the track I’m covering this week is one of Eighteen’s most known tracks and went on to become somewhat of a game changer for them in pretty every sense; “Motionless And White”.
This track in so many ways was the song that made Eighteen Visions stand-out musically as much as they stood-out appearance-wise. By the time of this release Eighteen had already pumped out 4 releases (2 full albums and 2 EPs), with their previous effort being ‘Until The Ink Runs Out’ which helped coin the term “fashioncore” to describe their appearance. At this time you have to remember that the world of hardcore was still full of massively baggy sports shirts and cargo’s, and the whole metalcore scene was just getting started and finding its feet, so for Eighteen to be prancing around with their multi-coloured bright hair and wearing suits and scarfs, it was clearly frowned upon by loyalists.
To stand-out musically they began to incorporate a sting of melody into their music, even adding in clean vocals. This approach was used a bit on ‘Until The Ink...’ but wasn’t fully embraced until this record and most notably, “Motionless And White”.
The song starts off instantly with James Hart’s trademark hardcore yells accompanied by co-founding member Ken Floyd’s intense drumming; so far it seems as though this is the usual 18V, just what you’d expect from this band of young genre-bending rockers.
Then the listener gets to the first breakdown of sorts and is greeted by soothing melody-driven vocals blasted out by this monster Hart, not only are these clean but they almost sound like a cry for help; James is IN this moment of the song and is singing straight from the soul. The song continues with this trend, blending both hard, coarse vocals with clean tune-driven one’s, even jumping from one to another in quick succession during chorus-like parts of the track. To be honest, I think I’d even say that even James’ most anger-filled scream on this song is done so with heart behind it, softer and more delicate. This isn’t a negative, it shows the continual growth that James has always strived to accomplish (check out my interview with him from a few months ago), no longer is he screaming his lungs out about death and Satan and the death to our King, but rather he is speaking to us and yelling when needed to get the point across.
This emotion is after all understandable, hell it would be anyway no matter what the subject matter of the song, but this one isn’t any song, no “Motionless…” tackles a subject that many people have probably faced, the problem of drug addiction and choosing between drugs and those that love you. To add to the emotion, the entire band was at the time (and always were) a straightedge band, meaning all of the members chose to not take drugs, drink alcohol or smoke, so to write a song about this obviously had to mean something to them depending on why they had made their choices.
Now a straightedge anthem in this era of hardcore wasn’t uncommon, heck it seemed every hardcore band in the scene during this time had a host of them, what makes “Motionless…” different is that it does something that none really seemed to do, and that was to try and reason as opposed to saying “fuck you, you drink and I don’t so you’re a cunt” kind of thing. The lyrics are powerful; they speak of reaching out, telling this person that this is their final chance, after this they will be consumed by the addiction.
The entire song seems to be one almighty question that is projected in the last two lines of lyric; “could you come back down, would you come back down”.
Though bringing in different features and techniques, the track does incorporate something that was used a lot by Eighteen (not to mention most hardcore bands), and that was unpredictability in a song; the tempo and sound change drastically and regularly through-out. These rapid changes are a testament to how tight the band were instrumentally at the time. This was the first record that included brand new bassist Mick “MickDeth” Morris, who had replaced former long-time bassist Javier Van Huss, so there had to be some pressure on the young metaller. Now I think it’s known that I was a big fan of Mick and I don’t mean to be biased or say anything bad about Javier, his playing was incredible and old 18V have some of my favourite 18V songs ever, but man did Mick make sense; his playing was right for this new take Eighteen were going for, his look fitted the new fashioncore path, everything about Mick screamed what 18V would become. Along with James, Ken Floyd on drums and Mick, Brandan Schieppati and Keith Barney rocked it on guitars and really help make this song sound new yet keeping this sense of old about it too.
Frankly I feel this song is one of Eighteen Visions best tracks, it stayed true to what had come before in the sense of heaviness and metal influence, yet brought in so much more which helped it sound fresh and started them off on this path that would lead to them becoming the band they did. It’s almost impossible to say how much this song (and the band, but this will be addressed in a future write-up on Eighteen Visions as a whole, so stay tuned) influenced today’s music. Seriously, without this track, this album and subsequent album ‘Vanity’, heavy music today would be VERY different, if this song had come out in the last few years, 18V would have been MASSIVE, no one can doubt that (look at the damn band Motionless In White, where did they get their name?...).
Sadly though, what happened happened, Eighteen split in early 2007 and sadly earlier this year Mick Morris died so there is no chance of ever getting to hear the original line-up that created this song blast it one more time. All that can be done is to celebrate this song, celebrate the band and pass the word that Eighteen Visions did in fact exist and that without them, rock music would not be what it is today. FACT.
"Motionless And White" is available at the link below, where you can buy the track from the album 'The Best Of Eighteen Visions' via iTunes, but its also available for pretty much any site the sells anything these days.
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