Sohpora / Utarid

Finding international screamo bands is always a treat. Here's a split 7" that Gasping for Breath Records released in June 2005.

Australia's Sophora start off with a riff on "The End Has No Beginning" that sort of sounds like Hot Cross, but then they dive face first into a screamy, emotional track with layered shrieks and shouts and wailing guitars. The song is short, but it's seriously colossal without sounding too chaotic. A little bit of that noodly guitar styling shows up in their other song, "Pathways to Perfect Places," but it's quietly dismissed for some pummeling instrumentation, dynamic, on-a-dime stop-starts and a chord progression that builds and builds the song's emotional center to its very end. Good stuff.

Utarid is on the other side, and as their recording isn't quite as good, I think Sophora's got them beat. But they're certainly not terrible. Their songs are faster and much more unsettled, but there's the occasional cross-section of a lull in the instrumentation ("...Or Else You'll End Up Dead"). They have one more song than Sophora (so, three in all) but it seems like their side is still shorter -- these tracks come, make their point, and leave quickly. But hey, not bad for a trad-screamo band from Malaysia though.

STREAM
Sophora - The End Has No Beginning
Sophora - Pathways to Perfect Places
Utarid - ...Or Else You'll End Up Dead