Major screamo from Japan. Eight short tracks in 16 minutes, with lots of frantic picking, chaotic discordance, intense screaming vocals, and a few more tangible and raw indie rock moments (definitely on the angular side). The vocals are pretty forceful, and they're mixed right in the heart of the music, so I actually like this. They flirt with a few scarce metallic riffs on occasion as well, and the playing is pretty tight for what it is (especially the drumming), so they've got an extra edge over most of these bands. Sure, it gets a little stale at times, but it generally carries over nicely. There's a ton of frantic drumming and intense speed buildups, as well as plentiful tempo changes and subtle layering of guitar textures, always keeping an undercurrent of melody and a good sense of rhythmic force. "Lights in the Cage" even gets a little heavier and more driving midway through, definitely a memorable break, which is a nice touch. The recording is somewhat rugged, but very cool for this style. There's a significant treble bite to the guitar distortion, but the bass tone is very central, the drums perfectly natural, and the mix very cohesive. I wouldn't really bother with changing anything about it because it's atmospheric in a sense, I do enjoy it. The CD-R comes in a thick color sleeve with strange artwork that, while not high quality per se, does look like it was professionally printed. The tracklist is handwritten on the back artwork, with credits written on the inside. Nothing fancy, no lyrics or anything of that nature. I suspect I've got some of the song titles wrong because the order is hard to determine and there only seem to be seven titles for eight tracks, so I'm not sure what that's all about. Good stuff, I like this more than I expected I would. I'm not sure I'll ever get the chance to hear more from the band, but I'd definitely like to...
[self-released]
Running time - 16:19, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Ground Level: 44, Ami, Lights in the Cage]
Black Line Fever - [email protected]
