Tonight's volume is all about bands with some post hardcore elements who are mixing this with a bunch of other styles. There's 3 bands from the glorious city of Montréal and one from Drummondville, enjoy and don't be afraid to send me recommendations! Thanks to Pascalou and Étienne for some of these recommendations.
Atsuko Chiba –
Jinn (2013)
One of the best
bands in Montréal, Atsuko Chiba (a character in the anime series
Paprika apparently) plays a visceral and super interesting blend of
experimental rock, post hardcore, post rock with a mix of explosive
and atmospheric guitars. It starts with a 5 minutes psychedelic
introduction with some flutes and a lot of Gilmour-esque guitar
explorations before. There's not a lot of vocals and there's barely a
need for them but it's used sporadically and it works well. “Qvox”
has this excellent At the Drive-In influence with these almost
rapped, almost screamed vocals. The
instrumentation is rich, ranging from acoustic guitars to keyboards,
there's a lot of stuff going on here. It's mostly contained in short
songs for the genre(s) except for the final track “One Big Happy
Family” and its 23 minutes length reminding me of the project of
Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala
formed when ATDI ended, the mighty The Mars Volta. While it drags a
little, the instrumental song has a wide array of emotions ranging
from almost metallic guitars to softer moments. I have yet to see
them live and I must fix that!
The Expectorated
Sequence
First Juice [Power] of the Shit (2014) + The Prolonged Disaster (2011)
These dudes are playing
some sort of super heavy grindcore with hardcore, screamo and
experimental touches. Their songs are obviously short with a
devastating production and vicious vocals. First
Juice, their
fourth album, is more streamlined and angry than the the excellent
The Prolonged
Disaster which
explored post hardcore, screamo and even metal at times more
thorougly (listen to a track like “Scum
of the Earth”). The
francophone quartet (all their lyrics are in English though) has
nothing to envy their American rivals, their sound is dark, brooding
and has plenty of heavy riffs intertwined with soft, spacey sporadic
moments. Both albums are highly recommended but I prefer The
Prolonged Disaster due to its versatility. It's insane music that makes you feel good!Expectorated Sequence on Bandcamp
Il a des trous dans le ciel!
The screamo/hardcore/post hardcore Nous Étions (we were in English) are about to start recording their debut full length after two pretty good Eps and I'm sure it will be extremely interesting. Their approach is quite lovely, melding harsh but understandable vocals (with poetic French lyrics) with heavy guitars full of feeling that are still incisive enough. There's a lot of introspective moments too like the beautiful “Le Journal De Ricardo Lopez” and while the vocals are constantly on the hardcore spectrum, La manière noire (the black way) is a surprisingly soothing release. The melting pot of genres (minus black metal) isn't quite far from what Deafheaven did with their seminal and future classic Sunbather.
Nous Étions on Bandcamp
Politess –
Politess (2015)
The project from
Drummondville is, based on their own description, “Everything
your mom doesn't like” and unless your mother is
into experimental hardcore/crust/rock/grind/metal,
they're probably right. Their self titled debut full length is one
hell of a trip into their musical dementia. Simply by looking at the
songtitles, you know you'll spend a special moment with these guys,
songs like “The New Chicken”, “Everything I Touch Turns Lesbo”
or “Give Me Back My Virginity” are totally bonkers. They're
certainly silly but they know how to compose cool stuff with a lot of
tempo changes, groovy riffs and screeching vocals. One of the best
bands out of Montréal and recommended if you like a huge dose of
what the fuck in your music. There's even
some saxophone on “La patère” and this adds a Naked City feel to
the whole thing. Politess definitely did their homework while
listening to Mr. Bungle and Anal Cunt and I'm giving them an A+.
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