In First Person / Storm the Bastille

In First Person have followed up their solid 2006 full-length, Lost Between Hands Held Tight, with a couple releases. This particular one is a split LP with Storm the Bastille, who themselves are following up their Dismantled 10" from last year. (My particular copy is on pink vinyl, but I like to think of it as Pepto Bismol colored.)

On Side A are In First Person's four songs, with a heavier, more chaotic, frenetic and confrontational sound than that which made up Hands. They definitely leave behind the 'screamo' generalizing here and instead opt to pay more obvious tribute to their mid-`90s influences (Threadbare, Kiss It Goodbye). The guitars twist and contort in the abrasive "Effrontery," which best makes use of the dueling male and female vocals, while "5 Year Plan" comes roaring out the gates with a shock of intensity. The desperation in their lyrics are still definitely present, though less directly social/political and a bit more vague and depressing. While the lack of variation that made Hands so striking seems to be void here, the constant smothering approach does work pretty well.

Storm the Bastille close out the record with a sound that's not easy to describe. They're pretty screamy (two ragged vocalists doing just that back and forth, overlapping or simultaneously), sometimes emo-violence-esque and generally pretty massive. You can hear touches of both Neurosis and Orchid in there, as well as bits and pieces of their European skramz counterparts. Their instrumental "I Found Comfort in This Fiction" might actually be the most impressive, full of chord and mood transitions and resonating guitar twinkles. However, their lyrical content is marked for being quite damning.

A promising pairing of intense acts.

STREAM
In First Person - 5 Year Plan
Storm the Bastille - Leveled
Storm the Bastille - Dead Men Tell No Tales
Storm the Bastille - Suck It Up. Spit It Out.