Eighteen Visions

Eighteen Visions: The Best OfThe Best Of (2001)
Trustkill Records

Reviewer Rating: 4

User Rating:

Contributed by: AubinAubin
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on July 29th 2001Heavy music; hardcore, metalcore, whatever you want to call it, has been going through a re-evolution for the past few years. Bands like (older) Earth Crisis, and One King Down have been injecting new layers of speed metal, death metal, and even post-2000 metalcore into the genre pioneered by Minor .

Heavy music; hardcore, metalcore, whatever you want to call it, has been going through a re-evolution for the past few years. Bands like (older) Earth Crisis, and One King Down have been injecting new layers of speed metal, death metal, and even post-2000 metalcore into the genre pioneered by Minor Threat and Black Flag.

Witness the latest evolution of hardcore; Eighteen Visions. Before I go any further, I should mention that part of my love of modern hardcore comes from the fact that bunch of hardcore kids who don't look all that different from me can kick the crap out of any modern metal band, musically (and probably literally too)

And while modern metal has turned into a mish-mash of rap, metal and country, the only people carrying the flag of real metal and hardcore are the hardcore bands; and thankfully, out of the view of the mainstream, metalcore and hardcore have evolved into something more intense and powerful than anything played by long-haired ex-hippies who smoke too much pot, and feel that downtuning guitars and swinging their hair around while singing about trite nonsense like "Satan" makes them tough.

While the band hasn't been around that long, they have continuously pushed the envelope between records; they've gotten heavier, and less punk-influenced, but still maintaining their hardcore edge; like Dillinger Escape Plan, they manage to cram so many influences into an ear-bleedingly powerful record.

Can I say one thing? The production is un-fucking-believable. For a band that focuses on the low end, it's remarkable how much you can hear. in "Motionless and White" when the vocalist sings a little, over the churning palm-muted powerchords, you can hear every inflection in his voice, and none of the instruments are lost. Also, in the closer "Dead Rose" when one of the guitarists turns off the distortion to play a haunting melodic passage, you can hear each string ring,

The lead vocalist, credited only as "James" spins vocal cartwheels, alternating between high-pitched screams, growls and eerie singing. The relentless assault of the band itself never stops and manages to create a wall of sound that is both dense, but nevertheless rhythmic. And what would a metal-influenced hardcore band be without spectacular breakdowns? Well, there is no shortage of those. Proving that they aren't married to steady tempoes, the music speeds up to breakneck speeds, and slows down to provide a rhythmic crunch.

That's actually one of the cool points, because something that people seem to have forgotten now days, is that dynamics in music actually increases the intensity of the faster, heavier parts, and keeps the music interesting; screaming over fast guitars and drums isn't interesting in of itself, but dropping into a nice slow breakdown makes those fast bits all the more compelling.

I definitely wouldn't recommend this for most people, mind you, even if you consider yourself a hardcore fan, the level of metal influence in this record does make it a little "out there" for the average earth-crisis-american-nightmare-one-king-down fan, but for those who don't mind a little hardcore with their metal, and can stand a band that doesn't seem to spend an awful lot of time preaching about sXe, would be loathe to pass this one up.

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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.

stephendmth (June 18, 2009)

Love this band and album.

Anonymous (June 17, 2006)

Oh, my world. It is ok

Anonymous (June 14, 2006)

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Anonymous (June 14, 2006)

THis is what I expect for long!

Anonymous (December 17, 2005)

i like these guys but they arnet hardcore at all. I'd relate this guys more like mainstream rock bands (like Mudvayne) but without being a steaming pile of shit. These guys are metal... not even metalcore they're just metal. I have no idea who decided to call these guys hardcore.

Anonymous (May 2, 2005)

THIS BAND ARE NOT THE BEST HARDCORE BAND EVER. There not hardcore. their new album is great easy listening mind!

Anonymous (April 7, 2005)

eighteen visions is the best hardcore band ever!
this cd is great!!

Anonymous (December 13, 2003)

Without having heard this band, I daresay that we need more bands like, for instance, Children of Bodom and Arch Enemy and less "metalcore" bands whose songwriting skills are limited exclusively to breakdowns. Bands like ETID can do metal-ish stuff pretty well, and, to me, even Thrice have a better sense of what good metal really consists of compared to, say, Bury Your Dead, but overall, this "metalcore" genre is WAY oversaturated. End of story. If you can't see that, then you may not be paying attention.

Anonymous (November 18, 2003)

really id prefer to tlak about this bands music rather than their ambiguous label

Anonymous (July 31, 2001)

I think my comments had alot to do with the interview...I think its unfair for people with limited knowledge of the genre to make such claims about it. I know this is a punk site but I think 18 visions is a good example of metal's influence on the genre. I could go all day on the similarites between metal and punk but I wont :). Aubin, I didn't mean to be so harsh. I'm glad you replied and were more specific about what bands and types of metal you were talking about.I agree deicide and gore metal in general is very silly...but there is alot of quality metal bands who have the same indie values as most punk bands do..
--metal defence guy

coldjuly (July 31, 2001)

Jesus christ people...comment on the review and not the person who reviewed it. If you wanna say something to the reviewer E-MAIL them!!! c'mon quit putting stupid shit about how they do not know metal or whatever you said. Frankly your comment was stupid and uncalled for.

Anonymous (July 31, 2001)

fuck these guys. now this is hardcore the way it should be http://www.punknews.org/reviews.php?op=albumreview&id=409

Aubin (July 30, 2001)

To the anonymous person who (correctly) pointed out that I don't know much about modern metal. You're right, I was talking about the mainstream metal bands, but I was also ribbing the strange death metal bands like Deicide. There are a lot of great pure metal bands, I'm sure, but the only metal-styled bands I've liked have fallen more into the hardcore side than metal. That said, Dillinger Escape Plan are amazing; so is Converge, but both are popular both with Metal kids and Hardocre kids.

Anonymous (July 30, 2001)

"And while modern metal has turned into a mish-mash of rap, metal and country, the only people carrying the flag of real metal and hardcore are the hardcore bands; and thankfully, out of the view of the mainstream, metalcore and hardcore have evolved into something more intense and powerful than anything played by long-haired ex-hippies who smoke too much pot, and feel that downtuning guitars and swinging their hair around while singing about trite nonsense like "Satan" makes them tough."

Aubin, you obviously have no understanding of the heavy metal genre. There are TONS of non-mainstream metal bands on indie labels that do not fit your stereotypical view of "metal". Its like someone basing there views of punk rock based on sum 41 or blink 182. I suggest next time you decide to critize a genre of music you do a little research and get your facts straight before shooting your mouth off..

Anonymous (July 30, 2001)

excellent review man. you're really good- fathead

coldjuly (July 30, 2001)

Who cares what you label them..there one of the best bands on trustkill.

Anonymous (July 30, 2001)

dont ever use the word hardcore to describe these guys, they are metal plain and simple.