WHAT I'VE BEEN JAMMING: MARCH 2024

Dance Gavin Dance - Tree Village: Mathy post-hardcore band Dance Gavin Dance have been around since 2005 with a revolving door roster, and truthfully, I’ve never been able to click with any lineup well. It’s a shame, because their combination of an experimental approach to the genre and soulful vocals is one that sounds great on paper. Maybe one day one of their albums will fully resonate with me. Until then, they at least have one fantastic song - this one, the first track off their third album, Happiness. This was the record where they decided to veer away from their more run-of-the-mill post-hardcore into the funky and unique sound they have today. The opening guitar riff, that shimmers like waving laminated paper (I need to know what effects pedals they were using) draws you in to a textured banger, rounded out by ragged screams as it grows more and more aggressive, calming down in an uneasy bridge, then barreling towards the finish line. Poignant stuff.

Seeyouspacecowboy - Silhouettes in Motion: SeeYouSpaceCowboy is easily my favorite band named after an anime reference (sorry, Brand of Sacrifice). They’re an eclectic sasscore group that takes me back in time to the early ‘00’s, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was first turned on to them when Connie Sgarbossa did guest screams on Senses Fail’s End of the World, one of the best emo songs of recent years. This song is a single off their upcoming studio album, Coup de Grace, which arrives in April, and I can’t wait. They nail that perfect balance between clean and unclean vocals that defined the genre in its heyday. Sgarbossa says that she wants this record to be post-hardcore that you can dance to, with each track telling a different story in a different city in a neo-noir setting. This is going to be one to keep your eyes on, for sure.

Full of Hell - Doors to Mental Agony: Full of Hell weren’t the first grindcore band I latched on to (that would be the always incredible Nails and the legendary Napalm Death), but they were the first one that blew the genre wide open for me, leading me to seek out other grindcore and powerviolence bands on my own. These guys never stop writing or touring, it seems like; every year they have a split EP with another heavyweight band, or a collaborative album with a sludge metal or harsh noise act (I know I’ve already talked about their experiment with shoegaze band Nothing, which was one of my favorite records from last year). This song is actually the lead single off their upcoming album, Coagulated Bliss, their first full-length non-collab effort since 2021, and just looking at that stroke-simulating cover art gives you a good idea of what you’re in for - bursts of borderline incomprehensible madness and violence. Damn, these guys are good at what they do.

Maximum the Hormone - What's Up People: Maximum the Hormone got a lot of flack for doing the themes for the second season of Death Note, because of how absolutely unfitting they were for the anime. Sure, let’s have a funky hardcore/nu metal band open and close each episode of this tv series that’s plot revolves around neurodivergent closeted gay guys playing 4d chess. It certainly matches the dark tone of the anime, but the energy level and aggression are incompatible. But none of that matters, because remove the opening song from that context, and you have a bona fide metal anthem. Maximum the Hormone have kept me hooked from the beginning with their bouncy rhythms and groovy slap bass, and this song has all of that in spades. It’s just the right amount of heavy where it’s like a fist in the face, but is still undeniably catchy. The slow breakdown is another highlight, and that ending, which is an avalanche of noise and screeching, is unforgettable. If you liked this, go listen to the entire album, Bu-ikikaesu, which is just hit after hit.

System of a Down - Hypnotize: Another nu metal track? That’s right! I’ve been reminiscing about nu metal nostalgia lately, and while all of System of a Down’s songs are largely still relevant today, this one just hits differently. This track is actually the fourth on their album of the same name, but I for some reason always assumed it was the first; it’s a perfect introduction to the themes of the record (sorry, Attack). The song gently eases into its verse, gaining more instruments, as Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian trade vocals, lamenting the state of the world, and the propaganda that blinds us to the suffering of other people, leaving so many unaware of the horrors occurring all around them, horrors that they themself may be complicit in. The chorus is simple - “I’m just sitting in my car and waiting for my girl.” It’s a bleak, all-too-relatable moment today, where genocides are happening in plain sight, with starvation, murders, and erasure of cultures happening every day, and yet it seems like there’s nothing you can do - you still have to go to work, you still have to live your life. This feeling of helplessness is a heavy weight, but I also feel it’s important to maintain a hopeful, if still bitter, outlook - that we will overcome this, that one day there will be justice, our voices heard, and we can recover and grow.

My Chemical Romance - Demolition Lovers: This, the closing track of My Chem’s debut album, which had a significantly more post-hardcore bent than their later material, is one of the best romantic emo songs. In that, well, it’s less about crushing on a girl you run into at the record shop, and instead about dying at each other’s side in an outnumbered gunfight. Yep, even before the grandiose theatrics of their later concept albums, this first LP is full of gothic drama, inspired by horror movies like Night of the Living Dead and the undisputed kings of horror punk, Misfits. It starts quiet and lonely, with dreary guitar arpeggios and understated vocals that almost makes it seem like a dismal lullaby. But things ramp up quickly, with Gerard’s voice gathering power and breaking here and there into passionate screams as the band comes into full force. The ending is as dramatic as you would expect, and honestly, if someone wrote a love song for me like this, I’d probably have no choice but to marry them.

Fugazi - Waiting Room: Fugazi were a band I didn’t really get for a long time. As a young teenager, I just simply wasn’t able to appreciate the massive impact they had on all the post-hardcore bands I loved. This song, commonly cited as their finest, just felt too slow to me - plus that long, long gap of silence right near the beginning! As an adult though, it’s easy to recognize why this album was so instrumental in the formation of the genre, and this is one of the best songs ever written. That bass riff is, simply put, delicious, and I love how it takes a couple of repetitions before it settles properly into the funk-inspired groove. Whether that’s by design, or just slipping up in the studio and deciding to go with it, it’s a great choice. Ian Mackaye’s unique, almost-bored sounding vocals give the song a vibe that I would define as “understimulated punk.” The song takes its time, not rushing things, and it’s all the better for it.

Better Lovers - God Made Me An Animal: Better Lovers is a supergroup that I’ve had my eye on since the moment they announced their conception. Following the messy and heavily reported on dissolution of Buffalo’s (upstate NY represent!) much-loved hardcore band Every Time I Die, three members - guitarist Jordan Buckley, bassist Stephen Micciche, and drummer Clayton Holyoak - would join forces with the legendary Greg Puciato, the former vocalist of the incredible mathcore act The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Will Putney, the guitarist for deathcore heavyweights Fit for An Autopsy. It sounded like a match made in heaven - and indeed, they lived up to the lofty expectations fans had for them. With only a single EP under their belt so far, they’ve proved that they’re planning to be a force all their own, not something that just lives in the shadow of their other projects. God Made Me An Animal is blistering metallic hardcore that blends each member’s talents beautifully, with Greg’s iconic in-your-face unclean vocals being a natural fit, even when they pull back just a hair for the bridge. I’ll be seeing them live this spring, and I’m sure the mosh pit will be insane.