Sleep Patterns - 'Parmi Les Rois' (2008)

Sleep Patterns - 'Parmi Les Rois' (2008)

*free here*

1) Colonies

2) Feeny

3) Christopher Talkin'

4) Sweat Fortress

5) The Useful Sound

6) Tell That Joke You Know

7) Revolutions

Sleep Patterns was a real screamo/post-hardcore band from Northwest Indiana/Southwest Michigan, the area where Merchant Ships and Midwest Pen Pals were formed and played. In fact, I found out about this band because Merchant Ships has a song called "Sleep Patterns", which includes a story that apparently was written by one of the members of the band Sleep Patterns. As it turned out, the band is ridiculously refreshing in a sea of emo/screamo revival bands.

The album opens with a clean guitar riff that is chilling to the bone. The guitar tone makes it very atmospheric, it's quite hard to describe, so you can listen for yourself! But this band was ultra-legitimate. You can hear in the singer's voice that he means everything he says very passionately. The vocals on this album are what really separate this from other bands like it. There are some controlled voice cracks along the way that make it more dynamic.

The album is 25 minutes long; it's only an EP and as far as I can tell it's their only release. To make the album even more legitimate, the band broke up due to their lead singer/bassist having nervous breakdowns. As much as that's a bummer, it makes the album even more emotionally dynamic to me. Oh, and did I mention that the album is free? All the more reason for you to give a listen to this amazing EP.

RIYL: Pianos Become the Teeth, My Heart to Joy, (old) mewithoutYou

Betterment - 'Defined' (2010)

Betterment - 'Defined' (2010)

*free here*

1) Energy

2) Brotel Rwanda

3) Ded

4) Defined

Betterment is a cool emo/hardcore band from Florida (USA) that has this free EP out and are working on new material as well, to be recorded in April 2011. [As a side note, the new stuff is most like "Ded" on this album]. They have both clean guitars playing chords and distorted guitars putting the hardcore sound in.

They've also got some great vocals, I like them. They're harsh but you can understand a lot of it and hear the emotion in it. The band is tight, they all blend together well and get a great sound. The energy in the music is great - I'm sure they'd be awesome live.

They're showing that it takes a lot more than for some influential bands to break up to take down this genre. And the recording quality is not bad at all and the EP is less than 12 minutes. I actually made a list of my top 80 favorite emo/screamo songs and "Brotel Rwanda" was at 28, just above Cap'n Jazz's "Ooh Do I Love You". I hope that's a testament to just how awesome this band is. They're a fresh listen, and free at that, so definitely worth a listen!

RIYL: Sinaloa, mewithoutYou, Hightide Hotel

Yage - 'Anders Leben!?' (2003)

Yage - 'Anders Leben!?' (2003)

Tracks:

1) We Lost Beauty

2) Ohne Form

3) 128

4) Lange Luegenbeine

5) Anders Leben!?

6) Leben Leben

7) Situations are Like Cells

8) Save the Fear Slave

Yage is a hardcore emo/screamo band from Germany. But unlike some other bands I've heard from Germany that could be called "screamo" (like June Paik, for example), this band isn't as doomy sounding and has more clean vocals. It's like a medium in between Empire! Empire! I Was a Lonely Estate and Saetia if you can imagine it.

Actually, instead of imagining it, just listen to this album or some of the songs off of it that are on Youtube. It's not a long album, and although it can be background music, it's hard to listen to and not notice any of the interplay between drums and guitar. There are parts where there is unison, but there are other parts where the guitarist is playing a riff while the drummer is almost soloing. That's in a lot of hardcore music like this, but this band does it well.

The vocals are tough to describe, they're clean but raspy like Tim Kinsella (of half of all emo bands ever to exist) but when he screams it's more like most screamo bands, where it's not as understandable but it sounds emotional so you don't really care. Anyways, this is a great German band and I wan't expecting to find anything new in them but they were a pleasant surprise, and you'll probably think so too.

RIYL: Saetia, Loma Prieta, Raein

Caravels - 'Floorboards' (2009)

Caravels - 'Floorboards' (2009)

Tracks:

1) Iceland

2) Greenland

3) Buddy System

4) Sixty Acres

5) Meat Wave

6) Safety Jobs

It may only be an EP, but this is a fantastic one. Caravels are a hardcore/real screamo band, described as a "loud band from Henderson, Nevada." They are highly energetic, and I'm saying this just based on their studio recordings.

They have roaring guitars that interact with awesome vocals that are screaming, but you can still tell what he's saying. It's not as emotional in a personal way that bands like La Dispute are, but the lyrics are actually pretty poetic.

It's the type of music that you would go crazy to when no one is watching but at the same time could make you think. It's an awesome blend of emotion and just awesome hardcore music, that a lot of "skramz" bands don't always have.

RIYL: Daniel Striped Tiger, Native, Sinaloa

They and the Children - 'Home' (2008)

They and the Children - 'Home' (2008)

Tracks:

1) Mechanical

2) The Madman

3) Exploding Inevitable

4) Invisible

5) Creatures Who Stopped Living

6) Exit Strategy

7) Stockholm

8) Gift

This was the last album by Connecticut (USA) band They and the Children. They were a hardcore band with D-beat influences, but they broke up in the same year that this album was released after 5 years of activity. Perhaps I'm going to be biased since they're one of the few good bands I have found from my state, but this album is great.

It is a bit long for a punk-influenced album (the average song length is 4:42), but it's well worth the time. I especially like "Invisible", which has an amazing spoken word passage of the song. It's the highlight of the album for me.

The screaming on this album is actually pretty addictive, it isn't really understandable but that doesn't matter for me, because it fits the loud and heavy guitarwork perfectly. The band is in general loud, but extremely believable in all that they do. I highly recommend this album, it's well worth the 38 minutes of your time.

If you really like this band, check out Iron Hand (and their blog). They're of very similar style, largely because they feature some of the same members as They and the Children.

RIYL: Bear vs. Shark, Touché Amoré, Killing the Dream, etc.