I am so sorry I arrived late with Rufio, I discovered this band only a few months ago and was able to hear their first full length only now, even tough I already got the chance to hear some stuff. And I think these four dudes play some great pop punk music, infuenced by Mxpx, Slick Shoes and Blink182. Their songs anyway are quite different, both because they do not sound as your average pop punk band with simple melodies and nothing more, both because they have some amazing vocals and lyrics.
The record starts with “Above Me” and “Still” ,the two potential hit singles, and I think nobody would not appreciate these tracks. “One Slowdance” is quite slow, but it’s still a great one, with some great love lyrics, just like “In My Eyes”, “She Cries” and “Dipshit”, with some awesome guitar solos at the beginning. The whole album “Peraphs, I suppose…” is filled with fifteen great tracks of poppy melodies and catchy choruses made of great voices. This band is gonna become the next Midtown, or, as someone please, the “next big thing”.
I am not sure what Rufio is all about, but their music is possibly so good that make this band and this record the number one selling at interpunk.com, check it our for yourself. I heard this band signed to Nitro Records, and if such a great label is interested in Rufio, I wonder why you should not be. |carlo@staff.truepunk.com
What’s happening in the world ? Where does this band come from and how the hell can a record label find out such an amazing band as Avenged Sevenfold ??? I really do not know, I never heard of these five Orange County dudes before their Hopeless Records debut “Sounding the Seventh Trumpet”, a debut album that I’d call not just one of the best ever, but also one of the most unique and rarest to find around.
Avenged Sevenfold sounds as a great mix of heavy fucking metal, hardcore, punk and even a few poppy melodies here and there that are never too bad: ranging anywhere from glam rock to black metal and crust-core, these five dudes bring out a great record, with great songs, as “Darkness Surrounding” and “The Art Of Subconscious Illusion”; the album is almost an hour long, for only 13 songs, but I guess it values all the good things everyone is saying about it. Not only there is violence in their hard sound, influenced from AFI, Bad Religion, Converge, Posion the Well and Skid Row to name a few, but there is also a sweet ballad as “Warmness on the Soul”, all played by a piano, in pure Guns N Roses’ “Don’t Cry” style. When it comes to power music, as “We Come Out at Night” and “Thick And Thin”, I’d say this band is a mic of Shai Hulud, while when it comes to the melody, I’d hazard a comparison with New Found Glory, of course, don’t take me by words. The most important thing is, do NOT label this band as “goth punk”, like AFI, because, even tough they have this kind of logo and cover of the album, they have nothing to do with vampires, death and cementeries. So, fuck goth punk, this is Avenged Sevenfold, it would be reductive to label this band with any word.
If you like music, moslty powerful but even with some soft moments, I encourage to check out “Sounding the Seventh Trumpet”, the record is sure to pelase your hardcore taste and also your more rock spirit, made not only of screams, metallic riffs and great vocals, but also of melodic chords and slow piano ballads. |carlo@staff.truepunk.com
I had heard saying great things about Penelope before hearing their lates ful llength album: this pop punk rock trio from Quebec really got big in Canada thank to their previous record “J’ai Fait Fuire La Visite”, who sold over 5000 copies, and with this new one the band is ready to sell even more and to get more exposure. It is not a case that the record was produced at the legendary Inner Ear Studios in Washington, DC, by Dave Smalley ( of Dag Nasty, Down By Law, DYS and ALL fame ) and was engineered by Don Zientara, who also worked with Fugazi, Foo Fighters, Bad Brains and The Get Up Kids. Also, on the record there is the guest appearence of Brian Baker, guitar player for Bad Religion, who added his own personal touch on three tracks.
Talking of the album, it has 13 songs all sung in French, and I expected French to sound like a sezy language, but I found out it is also alright to play punk rock tunes, even tough I did not get the meaning of a lot of tunes, my French sucks. Anyway the first single, “Pawn Shop” is a kickin ass fast song, with melodic chorus and easy-listening harmonies, and in general the whole album sounds in this vein: radio friendly powerful pop punk sound, not to mention they even cover a Down By Law song. The whole record souns pretty much this way I just said, with a few exception some slow parts, but in general it is all damn good pop punk music, with a touch of power here and there and I believe this band that sing in French is quite unique.
In the end, I suggest to you to check out these three Canadian dudes ( actually they are two guys and a girls ); this band is another example of who there are so many good bands from Canada that no one knows, and I wonder why. |carlo@staff.truepunk.com
The first things I knew about this record is that it was produced by John Reis from Rocket From the Crypt, a band that I enjoy quite much, so, even tought I never heard a lot from Selby Tigers except some songs on compilations ( not to mention their partecipation to the latest Plea For Peace tour ), I apprached listening to their newest album with some interest.
And I was not disappointed: as I almost expected, great rock n’ roll guitar riffs, fast drums and melodic vocals were overcoming my ears, as their unique music came through my stereo.”Dolph Indicator”, “The Littlest One”, “Tell It to the Judge” and “You’re Off the Project” are a few examples of the naked garage rock n’ roll sound of these three dudes and a girl, who has a great voice,too. The sound is not recoreded in a perfect way, but this is just wanted by the band and the production, to capture the purest rock sound of the beginning. Thirteen songs delivered from a great band that has nothing to envy from bands like The Hives, The White Stripes or even The Strokes. These three bands may be good and all, but Selby Tigres have one more thing: the punk rock attitutde! Listen to the punk rock destuction and fury that comes out of “Punch Me in The Face ( With Your Lips )” and “Superbreakout”: this is not average, and Selby Tigers show it.
I think that every lover of good rock n roll garage punk music cannot avoid getting into the nasty world of Selby Tigers, a band that has an unique way of playing and sounding: when you put their latest “The Curse Of the Selby Tigers” in your stereo you will never forget their sound, and recognize it every time you will listen to it.|carlo@staff.truepunk.com
I believe Thrice is the best band around today. And I am not saying this to please anyone, this is the pure truth. I had not listened to their debut “Identity Crisis” and not I was a bit doubtful about these four dudes, but after I heard their newest “The Illusion Of Safety”, I can assure anyone this is THE BEST BAND AROUND TODAY!!!
Produced by Brian McTernan, the thirty-eight minutes of this album are the most intense I ever heard straight in one band’s record: the opening “Kill Me Quickly” and the following “A Subtle Dagger” were amazing the first time I heard them, and I stopped the whole record and listened to these two songs over and over again. But I did not know what I was missing: the powerful hardcore metal yet melodic riffs were expecting me, with tunes as “See You In The Shallows” and “Betrayal Is A Symptom”, which is the best song I heard in a long time, with some kicking ass vocals and guitar driven harmonies. “The Red Death” is another great tune, powerful as a few and intense as nothing else, it will make your ears want to keep listening to this, but do not stop or you’ll never get to hear “A Living Dance Upon Dead Minds”, which has some slow almost acoustic intro, but becomes faster as time pass by.The sound of Thrice is not over yet , and “Where Idols Once Stood” shows it, with some roary vocals alternate with some more melodic and soft voices, or even the romantic “Trust” , that has a very soft and almost emo intro, but wait a minute or so and you’ll hear the power coming in. The record ends with “The Beltsville Crucible”, a song that has a great truth in it :”true friends stab you in the front, and keep you from getting what you want, when one more fix could kill you”.
If you did not notice, I mentioned almost all the 13 songs as “best song of the album”, well, actually I could mention every song of the record and call it “the best on the whole cd”, because this record has 13 hit-songs in it, it is damn well done, with no song that was put there just because the band needed some more minutes for the record: every song is perfect where it is.
Thrice has all the potential to become your next favourite band and to stay, for the music, for the lyrics and for the attitude: a portion of the money earned from “The Illusion Of Safety” will go to a non-profict organization named “A Place Called Home”, so, this is one more reason to buy this record.|carlo@staff.truepunk.com
What could a punker want more ? NOFX doing a split album with Rancid is a thing that will be sticking in human history for ages, and when someone will turn back thinking of the first decade of 2000, they will surely think about NOFX splitting with Rancid. And I imagine BYO Records is quite happy to be the chosen one, as I see platinum album on the way.
But, let’s forget about that and talk about the music: NOFX cover six songs done by Rancid while Rancid do the opposite. Everyone said “NOFX did better versions” or “Rancid did better versions” but I truly do not know that, I think every band did a good version of the song they covered , maybe I just expected something different from both bands. NOFX doing a ska version of “Radio” just do not fit it, that song is made to be played loud, not with El Hefe singing reggae influenced music, but this is just my opinion; instead , the cover of “Corazon De Oro” is amazing: they played fast melodic punk rock on a ska tune, and Fat Mike voice is awesome as well. “Olympia WA” and “Antennaes” are also two great covers, re-done in the classic NOFX way: fast guitar riffs and drums, some pauses and in general a lot of melody. But this was present also on the original Rancid song. “I’m the One” and “Tenderloin” from “Let’s Go” are quite alright, I just think that those were Rancid songs and I’d leave Rancid play them. Talking of Rancid’s work, the cover of “Moron Bros” is not ok, I miss the “dododo” slow parts of NOFX, while “Stickin In My Eye” and “Vanilla Sex” are quite similar to the original versions. “Don’t Call Me White” and “The Brews” left me a bit disappointed, I could not imagine someone could sing these anthems so bad. I mean, “The Brews” is ok, but NOFX do it better, and “Don’t Call Me White” sung by Matt Freeman…well, I guess he should play bass, a thing that he does better than anyone. “Bob” is also ok, but where is El Hefe’s trumpet ? Gone.
In the end, I guess that with a few exceptsion ( as “Olympia Wa” and “Antennaes” by NOFX ),these songs are better played by the band that wrote them, even tough this split is just great, at least for the idea of having two of the greatest bands of the 90’s playing on the same record.|carlo@staff.truepunk.com
I wonder what the title of the new 98 Mute albums refers to…maybe they are meaning their old album “Slow Motion Riot”, which was surely not a pearl of fantasy or emotion, just the same old So.Cal sound of Black Flag, Descendents and a few others, that influenced so many bands, like Pennywise in primis. “After the Fall” signs a come back from the four dudes grown up under the protective wings of PW, and the fact that this record is produced by Fletcher himself is the proof.
Luckily the sound on this new record has something new, from some more harmonies to some better vocals which are not only screamed by also melodic and in general some more good songs, like “They Say” and “Bullet For You” above all. The vocals have changed a bit, not a lot really, but I could say that on the previous album they were not at their best, while with this record Pat’s voice is someway more tight and direct. Songs like “Ultimate High”, “True To Yourself”, “Something In the Water” and even the two mentione above, brings the whole album on a more than positive level, with a So.Cal very influenced sound anyway, and I thought I was listening to some stuff from Pennywise.
As always, I mentione Pennywise too many times during a 98Mute review, I just hope they will get rid of this PW-clone soon, before it’s too late, because this band is quite good and I am sure they can do better without the influence of anyone.
Let me say one more thing about the artwork, it is very simple and someone would call it “poor”, I just wonder why Epitaph does not put more money in this, and the same happened for the latest record of Beatsteaks, 1208, Distillers, F-Minus, and Breach.At least, the CD features some multimedi enhanched stuff, but I am dumb and my PC was not able to open it.|carlo@staff.truepunk.com
How it is good to live in Europe, we might not have the best bands around - but I would not be so sure - but at least we have a lot of cool unique and rare stuff from great bands, and Face To Face is among these. As they are not so popular and their records are not so easy to be found, or , even better, due to all the reason explained in the booklet of this greatest hits, the band decided to release a double CD for all of their fans. Yeah, it’s a double CD, the first one is a music CD and the second one is a DVD with some nice videos and some stuff from the band.
The first CD has 24 songs from more or less any album Face To Face ever released: from the first tunes of “Dont Turn Away” , as “You’ve Done Nothing” and “I Want” , going thru the songs from “Big Choice” as “Struggle” and “You Lied”, songs from “Standards And Practice”, from “Ignorance Is Bliss” as “Overcome” and “Heart Of Hearts”, and the lates “Reactionary” as “You Could’ve Everything” and “Disappointed”. There are even a couple of covers as “Tommy Gun” from The Clash and “That’s Entartaiment” from Paul Weller.It is so cool to see how this band went intodifferent musical genres always keeping their punk rock attitude: from the melodic hardcore beginnig to the pop punk middle things ’til the latest alsmost emo sound, Face To Face always inspired a lot of bands.
Talking of the second CD, it is a DVD and it has videos from the most famous band’s hits as “Debt”, “Disconnect”, “I Won’t Lie Down” and “I’m Trying”, as well some other bonus stuff I won’t tell you here. Right before their new full lenght out soon , it is nice to hear something old from the band, especially for the people whio never got the chance to find their albums but wanted to check them out.
I suggest this greatest hits to everyone who does not have any CD from Face To Face, get this and you’ll know what you’ve been missing these years.|carlo@staff.truepunk.com
If you started reading this review wondering who For I Am Blind is, do not get worried as you do not know it, because they never released anything, just played some amazing shows in Italy, and this “self-titled” album is their first studio work ever. It was recorded a couple of weeks ago and I had the luck to hear it before anyone else in the world, except the band members maybe.Just to introduce yourself For I Am Blind, they are five guys that started playing with this name in 2001, after putting out some good records with such famous italian hardcore bands as No Reason Why, PHP and Mach5; then For I Am Blind was born and started playing a lot of tunes and shows, too.
When it’s down to this album, when I started listening to this I expected to listen to a kind of hardcore music, just hardcore, nothing more nothing less; instead, it happened that I found myself in front of a wall of sounds, various musical influences all mixed together to bring out one of the best eight great track album I ever heard from a band out of my country. Talking of the influences, I think they go from the heavy stuff of Stretch Arm Strong to the softer Good Riddance, going thru a lot of melodic No Fun At All sound ’til some things that I can’t even compare to anything I heard in the past. “And Face My Delusions” is the first tune and brings out a lot of energic power, that goes on with “John Coffey”, even tough this one has a quite catchy chorus and good melodies. The melody is also present on some tracks as “No More Blue” and “Someday”, which is playfully described as “emo” by the band, not to mention the most “ear-friendly” tune named “Waits & Expectations”, and I would not wonder to listen to this during MTV’s TRL: boys and girls singing along and doing stage diving from a three stairs building. If you look for speed you will find it on “Predefined Structures” and “Consider My Faults”: the first has great drum attacks, while the latter as a lot of stop&go’s, almost “old school” choruses and changes of time that show how the five dudes are good musicians as well.
If you happen to be looking for guitar driven sound, melodic and fast guitar hooks, some more cacthy choruses, consider that For I Am Blind has all in two words: harcore attitude. Of course mixed with clever lyrics that brings out the best of italian hardcore punk music I heard in years. Check them out on vitaminic.it or email foriamblind@libero.it.!carlo@staff.truepunk.com
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