I’ve never really been in touch with the straight-edge/ youth crew scene; don’t get me wrong, I love the shit out of a lot of those bands (Youth of Today, XPlaguedwithragex, Ten Yard Fight, etc.), but I am not one with the guys who play it, and they are not one with me. Though I am on friendly terms with most straight-edge folk, that deeper connection to a person and their music is simply not there; the way they live and the way I live rarely intersect, and without some kind of similarity or mutual understanding and respect, there is no deep connection, only a superficial/ social connection that keeps me out of the loop for good straight-edge hardcore bands. I happened upon this straight-edge/ vegan hardcore band from the Windy City early this year (March 2011) as the band passed through Ann Arbor’s Metal Frat. The live set was not particularly exciting, but it passed, at least enough for me to buy a 7” and see what they were like in the studio.
Tough I wasn’t amped the first time or two I heard these songs, I suddenly started digging the fuck out of this album; they were doing something different, something their colleagues didn’t quite do. The bass tone is very punchy and dominant, moreso than a usual bass; here, the guitars seemed to support the bass and drums, rather than the other way around (as it usually is). Secondly, the music is uncompromisingly fast and doesn’t have to stop for breakdowns to achieve its power; the songs all speak for themselves, which leads me to a third point… Third the vocals are a definite change of pace for youth crew-style punk; they are very low-pitch when translated to recording. The vocals are done at a distance, giving a sort of spacious feeling that turns higher-pitched vocals down a couple notches, and given the intensity of the singer’s voice, I don’t blame them for spacing/ dialing back the vocals a bit.
This is not your dad’s youth crew; these guys are high… on life and energy, and are essentially an American, straight-edge, and vegan version of Infest, with an equally cool name (because, come on…Noose… that’s just awesome). These guys are the punch-you-in-the-balls hardcore kind of intensity that got D.R.I.’s first album all that much-deserved attention. Though I know I don’t see eye to eye with these guys philosophically, I can feel that they feel same fire-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach anger and emotional rage that makes hardcore worthwhile.
-Aunty Social
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