Breather Resist

Breather Resist: CharmerCharmer (2004)
Jade Tree Records

Reviewer Rating: 2

User Rating:

Contributed by: AubinAubin
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on October 8th 2004I would like to take this opportunity to propose a new rule when evaluating hardcore, metal and other "heavy" releases. It is a simple little aphorism, but I feel it succinctly explains what really matters. And it goes like this: "You can scream in my face, but you can't make me care." Sadly, a.

I would like to take this opportunity to propose a new rule when evaluating hardcore, metal and other "heavy" releases. It is a simple little aphorism, but I feel it succinctly explains what really matters. And it goes like this: "You can scream in my face, but you can't make me care."

Sadly, all too many bands fail this simple test. Screaming, and playing very fast - or alternately, very slow and "sludgy" is often what passes for songwriting. A label uses a few archetypal adjectives in the biography like "intense" or "brutal" and we're off to the pressing plant. But in the end, a wonderfully packaged record with a literary, clever biography is still just a well packaged and marketed piece of plastic.

Charmer, the Jade Tree debut of this Louisville, Kentucky foursome has all the elements of an incredible record. The band includes a member of Black Cross and the underrated National Acrobat. They fuse elements of hardcore, crust and metal into a record approximating a melding of New Jersey's Deadguy and Seattle's Botch and boast superb production courtesy of Kurt Ballou.

And yet, while I'm sure - as many will point out - they're wonderful, kind people who care deeply about things and put on a great live show, the record itself fails to deliver anything genuinely moving.

From the opening track till the end, the band shifts through tempos and sounds, from discordant guitar noises, to thick dirty riffs; vocalist Steve Sindoni screams his lungs out and the band blasts through eleven tracks with some gusto. But despite a glut of transitions, and stylistic flourishes, there is little cohesion and instead of songs, you end up with a bunch of chunks of music which seem glued together at random.

Certainly the record might have impressed me more in the late nineties, but since then, we're seen how far the "noisecore" genre can be pushed. With the Botch and Coalesce's prototypical noise records We Are Romans and 0:12 Revolution in Just Listening boasting both schizophrenic and yet tight songwriting, Charmer just sounds dated and lacks the progressive elements and fully realized songs that justified those genre defining records.

In short, it's difficult to listen to not because of a lack of energy, or clever "parts" but because it never seems to go anywhere. And while I can appreciate the anti-climatic songwriting of a band like Neurosis, Breather Resist lacks the variety of elements that made them interesting. Clearly, the failure is in the transition from idea to execution. There is certainly no weaknesses in the performance or production, but simply in the lack of heft in the songs.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Anonymous (October 19, 2004)

qualcuno ha mai sentito nominare gli svedesi BREACH ?
il contenuto di questo cd li ricorda davvero parecchio: una (discreta) audio(foto)copia di questi ultimi..
cercate gli originali.. soprattutto "Venom" e "It's me god".
PEACE & fu*k Bu*h

funkisdead (October 13, 2004)

they took their name from a sick ass song by the band Hoover from DC on Dischord records, you should check them out because they rock more than 90% of the shit out there, it is all about odd time signatures and hard ass bass lines, hoover, faraquet, regulator watts, june of 44, etc.

Anonymous (October 11, 2004)

Anonymous: Comments made by people who don't want what they say to matter.

-BSD

Anonymous (October 11, 2004)

BSD: Idiot made by people who shouldn't have procreated.

score is for BSD

AmericanIdle (October 11, 2004)

This score is for the state of Kentucky and the great punx who live there, especially in the town of Lexington.

Anonymous (October 10, 2004)

Its alright.

This score is for these upstanding gentleman naming themselves after a Hoover song.

-ObeyYourParents

Anonymous (October 10, 2004)

Noisecore: Noise rock made by those who don't listen to much music.

-BSD

soulbleed (October 10, 2004)

I can see how this might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's not really average at all. It's pretty good.

opivykid (October 10, 2004)

"I group them more with Everytime I Die (slower though), than Converge."

A slower ETID? That sounds awful.

Anonymous (October 9, 2004)

I group them more with Everytime I Die (slower though), than Converge.

Anonymous (October 9, 2004)

This shit is alright but I don't know never really got into them.

-I Hate The Kids

dazed (October 9, 2004)

Yeah these guys were intense live.

Anonymous (October 9, 2004)

this record is amazing. im not going to argue with anyone, but i love it through and through. there is alot going on i think you just have to listen a little closer than most records.

johnnydanger (October 9, 2004)

cool live band. haven't heard this yet. was a fan of "only in the morning" though.

Anonymous (October 9, 2004)

i see this as more of an evolution from the sound that coalesce, botch, and many others pioneered. this shit is heavy as hell, and sometimes that's all you need to hear.

FortyMinutesWest (October 9, 2004)

"Forty - you serious? Definitely different than theif first release - songs are much more spaced out, far less CONVERGE like, slower, thicker, etc. It's heaviness is totally more calculated here, whereas the first disc just punishes for 20 minutes straight. I wish it sounded MORE like their first release..."

Eh, I needed to be more clear. I haven't heard it yet, Aubin's review sums up how I felt about their older stuff.

Anonymous (October 8, 2004)

Hey you can't give anything released on Jade Tree less than an 8!!!

-Chinatown

pastepunk (October 8, 2004)

Forty - you serious? Definitely different than theif first release - songs are much more spaced out, far less CONVERGE like, slower, thicker, etc. It's heaviness is totally more calculated here, whereas the first disc just punishes for 20 minutes straight. I wish it sounded MORE like their first release...

Anonymous (October 8, 2004)

for the most part i'm going to agree. i like it a bit more than you do, but it kinds of leaves me with a "wouldn't i be better off listening to coalesce or botch or deadguy or black cross?" feeling.

FortyMinutesWest (October 8, 2004)

Sounds the same as their last release.