Uwharria "Fury in the Foothills" CD
[Slave]
Bizarre. This band features former members of Blownapart Bastards, Divide & Conquer, Face Down in Shit, Oi Polloi, and RentAmerica, and they live in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Scotland, so they only get together every now and then to work on music together. Aside from the stupid hippie lyrics this is really good melodic hardcore/punk with a dashes of heaviness thrown in amongst wild throaty vocals. Most of the songs are short, running less than three minutes, covering everything from the short and grinding "Frigate Bird" - complete with distorted bass - to the moderately paced lead lines and almost thrashy rhythms of "Stokes County Freeway", and back to the energetic and bass driven "Red Oak Acorns". There are two unlisted tracks at the end of the disc that have a muddier, more demo-ish recording, and I don't really know what's going on there. Otherwise the recording is fine, the only thing that bothers me is that the vocals are mixed too far out front. The drums sound warm and natural, the basslines are important to the music, and the rugged guitars work out fine. All they need to do is tweak the mix a little to add some cohesion and keep the vocals back with the instruments. The CD comes in a slim cardboard slipcase (full color) with a black and white booklet on matte paper inside, containing lyrics and all that. The liner notes dictate that this band was formed strictly to "proclaim their affection for nature" and deals with the conflict of "society existing at odds with the earth", listing off numerous environmental websites of interest and such. That's fine, that's cool. But the lyrics are fucking stupid. "I love Carolina wildflowers - a vital part of our ecosystems, some endangered - some quite common. I love them, every one. Appalachian skullcap, pitcher plant, Oconee bells, trout lily and bloodroot, Jack in the pulpit, venus fly trap, bastard toadflax and may apple, Roan Mountain bluet, dwarf iris, pink ladyslipper and turtlehead, Dutchman's breeches, passionflower, spiderwort, wild ginger and ginseng, too." Boring. Some of the other lyrics are slightly more in-depth, but barely, and I absolutely cannot take that seriously. I cannot imagine a group of environmentalists can't think of a more creative way to express their ideas? I don't know. I like the music, I hate the lyrics, but thankfully you can't really understand much of the vocals, so... I can dig this for what it is. It could be so much more, though. (5/10)
Running time - 30:12, Tracks: 15
[Notable tracks: Frigate Bird, Red Oak Acorns, Stokes County Freeway]
Slave - http://www.slavemagazine.com

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