Give Up the Ghost

I doubt anyone reading this was looking forward to this 7" quite as much as me. American Nightmare are one of the best bands in hardcore right now that don’t get caught up in labelling themselves as one style of hardcore. They mix old school with some other metal elements, there is only one way to describe this record; crazy. The self titled 7” was nuts, and kids loved it, it was by far my favourite 7” of 2000. Now we have the new 7” “The Sun Isn’t Getting Any Brighter”, also released on Bridge 9 (one of the best hardcore labels). A part of me was hoping they wouldn’t progress very much, if it isn’t broken don’t fix it right? However they did change, quite a bit in my opinion. It’s sort of like they focused more on being nuts then composing songs with a lot of elements, which turns out to be a good thing at times. It has gotten more metal, less old school and the lyrics seem even darker. American Nightmare’s lyrics are intense and emotional, often dealing with “heart break” and things like that. One of the best things about American Nightmare are these emotional lyrics. Included in this 5 song 7” is 2 covers, one by the amazing Boston band The Trouble and one by the classic NYHC Cro-Mags, both are excellent but The Trouble cover is my favourite track on the 7”. Finally, the last great thing about American Nightmare is the artwork on both 7”s, dark and extremely well done, it’s quite obvious that the guy that did this 7”s artwork will have a career in art. I still enjoy the S/T 7” more but when all of these elements come together it makes for one of the best 7”s in my collection, pick this up!! Don’t be that kid that doesn’t find out about how great they are only when their release comes out on Equal Vision, enjoy them now.