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Epitaph Records -- Millencolin

I don’t know how many of you outside the ones that normally listen to screamo are catching wind of this, but year after year, Alone Records has quietly been putting out stellar releases. Jerome’s Dream, Funeral Diner, You & I, Joshua Fit for Battle, Racebannon and many other seminal bands in that scene have put out records through Alone, and now you can welcome Bravo Fucking Bravo to that family.

Bravo’s brand of intense, driving screamo has plenty of roots in both punk and rock‘n’roll, giving it a fairly varied sound without having to sacrifice anything in the way of intensity. With three of the band members all contributing vocals at one point or another, it seems as if the music is coming at you from a wide variety of different directions. The tight, pounding rhythms are the backbone to the entire album, but the scruffy, throaty screams are what pulls it all together. Think an even more intense version of Glass & Ashes, just less bass-driven.

It’s not just one element at the forefront of II that makes it stand out, however, it’s how nicely everything meshes together to make each song something new and something interesting. “Jean Claude God Damn,” at only a minute and a half, goes through several stages and dynamics, making it one of the most complete songs on the entire album. “Friends With All the Dead Kids” has a much more back and forth, sing-song punk rock feel to it, and the dual vocal approach works better than the band could have even expected, and this song as well seems to go through different stages, trading their raging guitars and throat-shredding screams for short instrumental passages that only whet your appetite for more. To follow that up, “Doctor Hot Shit” has an extremely urgent feel to it, as the short bursts of vocals cascade over an extremely powerful rhythm section. Each line of the lyrics is screamed with such hard hitting, unwavering conviction that you can truly feel it.

There’s no fault to be found anywhere on the band's Alone Records debut. Chalk full of well-channeled rage, intelligence, and killer rhythms, each song is just as well crafted as the last. Just the right mix of speed, power, and unwavering conviction go into every track on the album, and the multi-layered vocal assault is one of the best I’ve heard all year.

If Glass & Ashes was a part of the Alone Records roster, this would be the result, and from this end of things, color me impressed.



People who liked this also liked:
Defiance, Ohio - The Great DepressionLatterman - ...We Are Still AliveNow Soldiers - Sick WorldX One Way X - X One Way X [12 inch]Time Again - The Stories Are TrueTowers of London - How Rude She WasSince Remembered - Coming AliveAlexisonfire - CrisisShot Baker - Shot BakerThe Death Set - To



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    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, February 2, 2006 at 11:46 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    wow guys!!!
    itīs good to know that there are people who make so fucking great musik!
    I think Iīll get a real fan!!
    Good songs! Good musik! Nice cover!
    greatings from germany
    -a fan

    Posted by cherrycolarain on 2006-01-14 19:58:30
    My Score:

    This sounds very promising.

    Sigh, How I do miss Joshua Fit For Battle. AMAZING band.

    Posted by SilentStorms on 2006-01-13 11:23:46
    My Score:

    Neil Perry was one of the best. Check out their disco on Level-Plane Records. One of my top 5 cds of all time. It's not hip hop though. I assume this band was named after the Dead Poet's Society character. Anyone know if I'm right? Or wrong, perhaps.

    Posted by Dante3000 on 2006-01-12 22:51:53

    Ramo, is Neil Perry a band? Because there was a dude on SJSU's Football team with that name too. He lost a leg and became a fucking hero. So I figured maybe he was gonna make a hip hop album, get it? One leg...Hip hop...But really that was his name.
    -Dante

    Posted by danperrone on 2006-01-12 17:34:25

    i was a little underwhelmed by this

    it's good, but not as good as a lot of the other stuff in the genre

    6/10

    Posted by SilentStorms on 2006-01-12 08:30:26
    My Score:

    Holy shit, You Used to be a... on Bravo's media page is fantastic!

    Posted by SilentStorms on 2006-01-12 08:26:54
    My Score:

    If you guys like You and I, definately check out This Ship Will Sink - it incorporates all the hard crazy elements from their guitar player's previous band. Too bad they broke up too though, the bastards.

    Posted by SilentStorms on 2006-01-12 08:22:54
    My Score:

    I like the instrumentals much more than the vox. But I'm gonna have to pick this up for shizzle. Thanks Anchors!

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 at 9:30 PM (EST)

    You & I aren't terrible by any means, but I was listening to their discography and the "I will not let my heart die!" part came on, and I almost had to puke.

    -Will

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 at 7:41 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    Making NH proud for years. About time they got noticed.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 at 6:48 PM (EST)

    seeing this review made me go on soulseek and see if the cross my heart with a knife room still exists, nope.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 at 2:18 PM (EST)

    Will i agree with you on you and i.... But when the songs are good they are really good.... And i guess anchors is right that the reason we think the lyrics are so cheesy is bc of the bands now... But maybe not

    Posted by Anchors on 2006-01-10 13:18:35

    You & I can be kind of iffy. A lot of the recordings are real rough, and some of the songs just aren't that good. When it's good though, it's real good. And as far as the lyrics, you have to remember with a lot if that back when they wrote that, few bands did write like that.

    It looks trite and cliche now, but when Billy Werner wrote Saetia's lyrics, that was almost 10 years ago, not many bands were attempting to be poetic like that. Because of all the bands who have written awful lyrics about relationships and the like, it's easy to look back now and say they sucked, but "nu-screamo" didn't exist then, it was the road less traveled.

    Look at the lyrics for "Tell Me About Your Childhood," and tell me that has no meaning. It's one of the few songs that can honestly make me choke up. You have to find a different version of the song than is on the discography though, since that's live and sounds awful. Listening to the real song when reading those lyrics will really make an impact. And since I know everyone is lazy, I'll paste what lyrics I'm talking about;

    "i'd like to smash the hands that held you down and gave you pain and erase the images that have no place in your head. fly that kite so high. let go of the string. cast the blame where it belongs. they let you fight this battle with arms tied. they left you to find the answers with blind eyes. i'll watch you sleep tonight. as you tremble and dreams are cascading. it's not statistics they group us in. don't redeem your faith so quickly in what they told you was right. i'd die to protect you. take back your night. now she reaches for something as the pain of violation sets in. what they gave you was nothing and what you kept was silence. please don't be silent anymore. you'll be stronger someday. you'll be taller someday."

    I have no idea why I just typed all this.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 at 8:45 AM (EST)

    the artwork is by dan danger, who is fucking amazing.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 at 8:26 AM (EST)

    I still don't get a lot of the hype about You & I. I got their discography and it sounds like nu-screamo with the "scream/out of key sing" pattern going nonstop. The fury of Orchid isn't there. Also, I'd like to say that anyone who claims to like the lyrics has no right to say anything about other bands.

    -Will

    Posted by ramo on 2006-01-10 03:37:23

    Alone Records happen to be my favorite record labels that I believe are really underappreciated. You got Racebannon, Neil Perry, The Avenging Disco Godfathers Of Soul, The Disease, Funeral Diner, and now this band.

    Very good album.

    Ramo

    Posted by ElVaquero on 2006-01-10 02:43:27

    Good thing I clicked on this just because of the name, band sounds good. Will check it out.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 at 1:15 AM (EST)

    I go to college with 2 of these guys.

    Good guys. Good album. Glad to see it getting recognition on here.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 at 12:19 AM (EST)

    finally an album with decent cover art

    -Lapse

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