Category: Music

There has only been a select few of UK bands who have been lucky enough to be signed by Bridge 9 records, so when I found out that Dead Swans had been signed up by the biggest label in hardcore I expected good things from the album.

When you first put the record on you are greeted by Thinking Of You, the song starts out slow and sludgy and I thought this could be really something different and great, until 20 seconds in when the song takes off. Every line of vocals is sung in a call and response way by singer Nick, every so often in hardcore music this is really effective, but when it’s on nearly every song it loses its charm.

After being unimpressed by the first song I didn’t want to condemn the album as the rest might be different, but I was wrong. Almost every song starts in the same way, fast music, fast vocals in call and response fashion, the structures aren’t all that inventive and most songs have discordant finger picking at the end of each bar which is all too cliché.

Even when the song Ivy Archway ends with an instrumental acoustic piece I feel I’ve heard it done all before in bands like Give up the Ghost and The Legacy. Dead Swans are obviously fans of the aforementioned Give up the Ghost as nearly everything about them is a tribute, “poetic” lyrics, discords, octaves and stereotypical breakdowns, even Nick’s voice sounds like Wes Eisold. You could argue that the genre is melodic hardcore and it’s very hard to be original, but plenty of bands, especially in the UK have written brilliant melodic hardcore songs that sound like no other band.

It wasn’t until I got to the song Winter Overture that I found a song I genuinely liked, as its all instrumental and pretty original in its format. Unfortunately that’s the only real gem on the album and to be frank I’d rather listen to a melodic band with more originality.

The sad truth is that in today’s dying hardcore scene this album will probably be one of Bridge 9’s best selling of the year and everyone will love it and Dead Swans will continue to be at the top. I’m not saying they don’t deserve it as they’ve all been in bands that haven’t gone anywhere in the past, just that there are other bands out there writing better, more original music.

Jonathan Teggert

Sights and Sounds are a band whose name is a statement about themselves, when you look at the album artwork for their new release Monolith you are mesmerised by beautiful imagery and when you play the record you are barraged by an array of different sounds.

Unfortunately this isn’t the best thing in the world, as sometimes the songs sound like Isis and sometimes they sound like Thrice. Although Sights and Sounds are clearly a very talented band, you often feel like instead of creating their own sound they have taken what bands have already invented and tried to throw it together to make something new but it doesn’t always work.

The album has a whole stoner rock vibe about it, which is a positive on Sights and Sounds’ behalf as that genre of music is having a real resurgence at the moment and hopefully they will get in on that. Songs such as The Clutter and Pedal Against the Wind have a very similar sound to progressive emo bands such as Brand New and it’s a sound that really works for the band and suits singer Andrew’s voice really well.

This band is obviously a very experimental band and although Monolith may be quite a confused album it has a lot of potential and I feel that a lot of people will dig it. I really hope that Sights and Sounds define themselves more clearly by the time they release another album as I get the feeling it could be something special.

Jonathan Teggert