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Tides, As Long As We’re All Living, We’re All Dying/The Hound, and Draw Blood…

Tides - From Silence"From Silence" is the latest output from Tides (out of Boston, as the title would suggest) on Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records. The three-track, 20-minute EP is the second release of their moody instrumentalism that slowly builds from droning clean passages to thicker surges of dissonantly gritty distortion and pulsing feedback that have sludgy/doomy elements but can't really be relegated to that type of category. Utilizing a hypnotic sense of repetition at its core, the drumming is actually phenomenal and does a lot of work to color things up and add energy—at times running circles around the driving centerpiece rhythms. There's a fucking excellent recording on this thing, too: Completely balanced with tones that are quite warm, which makes the impressive percussive work all the more powerful... and it's handsomely packaged to boot. In the end, this is a relatively straightforward and succinct release for this type of material, because many such bands find it relatively simple to deliver this sort of experience for an hour or longer, so it's nice to hear a release of this nature that keeps it quick and leaves you wanting more.

Tides "The Sight"

Buy it if you like it:

RevHQ
Very Distribution

As Long As We're All Living, We're All Dying/The Hound - splitFor the record (no pun intended), I don't really cover new vinyl anymore due to a severe lack of time, so I don't want anyone who's sent me unsolicited vinyl in the last eight months to get pissed off, but this label was kind enough to supply me with mp3's in addition to vinyl for these next two—meaning that I wouldn't have to digitize anything myself—so that helped out a ton. Also from Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records is a recent split 7" between As Long As We're All Living, We're All Dying and The Hound, both also from Boston. Now, I'm generally not that into duos due to an unfair bias against them on my part, but As Long As We're All Living, We're All Dying is among the most convincing such acts I've encountered in recent years, and their contribution to this split yields three more tracks of their diverse attack of metallic hardcore/punk. Expect everything from ripping death metal riffs to thick power chords with a little crusty dissonance happening, in addition to plenty of tempo variation. An efficiently raw recording gets the job done well, and it's nice and dense—so despite a sense of space, it doesn't necessarily sound like there are only two dudes in the band. Meanwhile, The Hound is a female-fronted act that's a good match in terms of overall sound/feel, though diving into longer songs with more of a metalcore lean in the end (plus an oddly rocked out vibe to some of the riffs). There's certainly a chaotic edge to some of the riffing, but something about the thick dirtiness makes the tracks complement the As Long As We're All Living, We're All Dying material. It's not entirely my thing, but the vocals are much stronger than average for the lower-midrange screaming approach, and there are some forceful breaks to keep things moving.

As Long As We're All Living, We're All Dying "Air Israel"
The Hound "Big Sky Country"

This one's on clear vinyl neatly packaged against matte black paper with metallic silver printing, so make the grab if you dig the tunes:

RevHQ
Very Distribution

Draw Blood - RowdyismOne more from Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records comes in the form of the "Rowdyism" 7" from Draw Blood—another band that, you guessed it, hails from Boston. This is my first exposure to these guys and their brand of moderately paced hardcore with great vocals that are just all out yelling with no remorse. To tell you the truth, I actually find the vocals to overpower the music big time since the songwriting isn't particularly explosive and has an unexpectedly sort of melodic and rocked out tinge to it. And I'm fine with that, I actually really enjoy those influences in certain instances, but the vocals feel like they need a more energetic and in your face attack to match their force, you know? I don't know, this is pretty good stuff, but I find myself needing to hear more to get a better picture of what the band is capable of. See what you think:

Draw Blood "Hey, Neighbor"

Pick it up if this is your thing (my copy's on clear red vinyl, but I'm not sure if other colors are available):

RevHQ
Very Distribution

Comments

  1. tides is awesome

    much respect to TDB records

    5.22.2006 | By Anonymous

  2. Hell yeah with the Tides write-up.

    Should I be expecting a future Samiam write-up as well?

    5.22.2006 | By Tyrone

  3. that tides track is awesome, much better than most of similar shit. really evocative. the drummer’s off the hook too.

    5.23.2006 | By chris

  4. speaking of tides - andrew, get your hands on the new callisto album, it’s beautiful.

    5.23.2006 | By chris

  5. Tyrone, I’ll probably write about Samiam at some point down the road, but I’ll DEFINITELY write about Invocator soon!

    Chris, a new Callisto disc is out!?  I had no clue, I’ll have to look around for that… thanks for the notice!

    5.23.2006 | By Andrew Aversionline

  6. any links were to buy the callisto cd????...im dying to know..

    5.23.2006 | By reno

  7. try the fullsteam site. but i suggest downloading a track or two first, it’s much more mellowed out and mostly instrumental (sort of like what “panopticon” was for isis)

    5.24.2006 | By chris

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