Autumn “Wire Hangers” 7”

Autumn formed in Pennsylvania in 1994 from the remnants of a straightedge band called Forethought and played a fairly east coast sounding brand of metallic emo/screamo hardcore stuff that actually reminds me (musically, though somewhat vocally as well) of a couple of bands from my area around that general time period. Of course, as with many such bands in this realm of the hardcore scene, the vocals are pretty damn shaky and definitely take some getting used to. But the riffs... I mean, some of these riffs are fucking amazing, and dissonant shit like the intro to "The Nameless" (or the "chorus" about 37 seconds into "My Eternity", for that matter) is the kind of stuff that I go nuts over, so it's really a shame that there are just so few bands around these days that still capture that particular style.

This 7", "Wire Hangers", came out in 1995 as a split release between Seven One Seven and Nevermore Records, and according to the insert the four tracks were originally slated to appear on a nine-song CD that was never released. They had done a demo prior to this EP, and went on to release a four-song CD EP on Crisis Records, not to mention the obligatory handful of compilation appearances. I'm not sure if the five leftover songs from the unreleased CD were doled out to the comps or not. Oh, and as you can see above, also similar to many other 90's bands, these dudes had terrible taste in visual aesthetics, resulting in what is undoubtedly one of the lamest record covers in the history of hardcore. Oh well. I personally think the music makes up for it:

1. "My Eternity"
2. "Every Day I Live"
3. "The Nameless"
4. "Wrong"

This one's out of print, of course, but you could probably find it on trade lists or something if you wanted, as I imagine there are plenty of people out there who couldn't get past those vocals. Here's their track from "The Tie That Binds" compilation in 1996 just for the hell of it:

Autumn "Suffer"