In Review: Blacklisted - No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me

First I suppose I should mention that this is ONLY available on 12” vinyl, which includes a coupon for a digital download by way of Deathwish Inc. Blacklisted is no stranger to these means of release (if you’re a true fan of the band, you’ll remember the vinyl exclusive release of their album, Peace On Earth, War On Stage, or the limited pressing of the split they did with First Blood, titled, Dead Mans Hand Volume: 3 which was also only released on vinyl.) There are plenty of vinyl collectors that obviously are not affected by this, but there’s a lot of other fans that I feel are missing out on this release. In my opinion, the vinyl exclusivity is a bad idea because it forces fans that want the mp3s to pay extra money for something they don’t need. It’s definitely better to give fans (which in this case should be defined as people that go to your shows and buy your records and merch, which puts food on your table and gas into the car you drive) more options for obtaining and enjoying your new music. It’s no secret that a lot of people in this day and age of the iPod and peer-to-peer file sharing software will just “acquire” (read: steal) this album. But not releasing this on other format (i.e. CDs) certainly doesn’t give the Blacklisted fans that want to hear this much other option. The true fans surely will go out and purchase the vinyl anyway, to get the digital download card that goes with it, thus getting it onto CD (if one were so inclined to burn one), but then be stuck with a 12 dollar album format that they won’t do anything with. People will respond to this with internet thuggery saying, “yeah well there’s no money to be made in selling CDs anymore because of piracy and the small turnaround they’ll acquire from CD sales because of it,” ultimately making a vinyl exclusive sound like a good business decision by the band.

But what most people with unfounded arguments as such don’t know is that the music on No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me was most likely recorded on analog, which is then produced and pressed onto vinyl. End of transaction. If they wanted to make CDs, they would have to take a whole other long, pain-staking step of converting the analog to digital and then pressing CDs. Or, I can do you one better: if they were planning from the beginning to produce the album via a CD format, they would have recorded to digital from the start, completely bypassing analog. Another fact is that when Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God was leaked a year ago, Blacklisted flipped shit and traced the leak to a kid in Canada and more or less threatened his life. Certainly stemming from this incident it would be in their best interest to be more careful with future pressings of albums, all the more reason there was no real release date set for this new album in addition to only being available on vinyl. But even with the argument that there’s no money to be made in CDs in relation to the overwhelming masses file sharing, pirating, and having mass-produced CD burners available on any personal computer nowadays, it’s still blatantly obvious that CD players and iPods are bought a hundredfold over record players. I rest my case.

Now that the business aspect of the release has been addressed, I can get down to the nitty-gritty. First of all, Blacklisted has and probably always will be referred to as a hardcore band. However, calling No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me a hardcore album is quite a stretch. Frankly, aside from it being done by a hardcore band, there’s really nothing hardcore about it. It has quite a rock and roll, almost grunge feel to it. It reminds me of Foo Fighters and a non-electronic version of Stabbing Westward mish-mashed into one big pile of shit. It’s waaay different than anything they’ve done to date. And while I suppose it is musically good for what it is, I don’t know if this record is really my cup of tea. Blacklisted messed with my Blacklisted, and if this is the path their musical careers are taking, you may potentially see less and less people attending their shows. It’s definitely bold, to say the least. It’s obvious that each track has been very carefully laid out and executed, and attention should be paid especially to this aspect. Although we can’t really call this a hardcore record, and perhaps Blacklisted has chosen to distance themselves from the scene, the album is still overall quite enjoyable. It’s just at the same time a little disheartening to those of us fans that were expecting another heavy hitter from these guys. It took me quite a few listens to get into it, but I do like it. Just not as much as their other releases (after all, it’s got to be like a gorilla on your back to try and top the Our Youth Is Wasted EP, which is also found on the full length We’re Unstoppable.)

Though I doubt this is the last we’ll hear from them, if my speculation is true that Blacklisted is trying to morph into something more outside the hardcore scene, I feel there’s quite a big margin for a serious decline in popularity. The new record has a series of interludes that honestly just seem to suck time and do not really need to be there, as well as something you don’t see in hardcore bands, a slow, acoustic track halfway through titled The P.I.G. (The Problem Is G.) Despite coming up short in the hardcore sound department, the album still rocks as hard as it possibly can, albeit an extreme polar opposite in comparison to what they’ve done prior. Stand out tracks for me are Everything In My Life Is For Sale, and Our Apartment Is Always Empty. I think the highest I can bring myself to give this is a 6 out of 10. It’s a good effort, but it’s definitely not what I anticipated it being and honestly, it’s a little frightening and I hope they don’t keep this up and get back to the roots that made them arguably one of the most popular hardcore acts out of Pennsylvania.

Blacklisted proclaimed: “let the music speak for itself.” The preceding statements are what the music said to me.

Davey Bx

Decibel Magazine's Top 40 Albums Of 2009 And Why It Sucks

let me start off by saying i'm no means an expert on ANYTHING. i don't like a lot of black metal or bands that have songs longer than my attention span, so perhaps my opinion is biased. also i haven't heard all these records so perhaps i am wrong, but i am familiar with most of the bands on here and have heard other records not even on here to form an opinion, however skewed it may be. keep your internet thuggery to yourself if you don't agree, i'm not trying to start an argument or say i know everything because i don't. just stating what i THINK is good music over bad. now that that's outta the way, i also have to address the fact that this was released in early november, which means it was printed in october, as the december issue of decibel. how can you establish a best of 2009 list when at the time of print there was about 2 months left of the year? and there's still albums that haven't been released yet.

this was decibel's top 40 as follows:

40 Funebrarum - The Sleep Of Morbid Dreams
39 Millions - Gather Scatter
38 Municipal Waste - Massive Aggressor
37 Javelina - Beasts Among Sheep
36 Suffocation - Blood Oath
35 Goes Cube - Another Day Has Passed
34 Culted - Below The Thunders Of The Upper Deep
33 Krallice - Dimensional Bleedthrough
32 Brutal Truth - Evolution Through Revolution
31 The Red Chord - Fed Through The Teeth Machine
30 Keelhaul - Keelhaul's Triumphannt Return To Obscurity
29 Katatonia - Night Is The New Day
28 Gaza - He Is Never Coming Back
27 Goatwhore - Carving Out The Eyes Of God
26 City Of Ships - Look What God Did To Us
25 Burnt By The Sun - Heart Of Darkness
24 The Gates Of Slumber - Hymns Of Blood And Thunder
23 Funeral Mist - Maranatha
22 Mournful Congregation - The June Frost
21 Altar Of Plauges - White Tomb
20 Asphyx - Death...The Brutal Way
19 The Atlas Moth - A Glorified Piece Of Blue Sky
18 Paradise Lost - Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us
17 Mastodon - Crack The Skye
16 YOB - The Great Cessation
15 Nile - Those Whom The Gods Detest
14 Magrudergrind - Magrudergrind
13 Obscura - Cosmogenesis
12 Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse
11 Immortal - All Shall Fall
10 Isis - Wavering Radiant
09 Marduk - Wormwood
08 Tombs - Winter Hours
07 Slayer - World Painted Blood
06 Kylesa - Static Tensions
05 Cobalt - Gin
04 Napalm Death - Time Waits No Slave
03 Coalesce - Ox
02 Converge - Axe To Fall
01 Baroness -The Blue Record

starting off, i like the nods to suffocation, magrudergrind, municipal waste, and brutal truth. these are all very hard working bands that have been around for a long time. of these i heard the municipal waste record and loved it, so i don't understand how it's so low on the list. the new burnt by the sun record is not only the BEST they've done to date, but also boasted as the LAST record they'll ever release. BBTS is calling it quits and going out on an incredibly intellectual note with heart of darkness. so not just for the ridiculous guitar work and wise lyrics, nostalgic value should have propelled this record into the top 10 easy. i never cared much for goatwhore, but i did hear two tracks from carving out the eyes of god which was enough to say they are definitely on to something, which leads me to believe they were equally as cheated as burnt by the sun. i'm about even with the placement of agoraphobic nosebleed's latest record too, although maybe could have been bumped slightly higher. it's the first record they've put together that has some sort of structure and isn't just grindcore vomit. i've actually acquired and listened to this record MULTIPLE times because it's that good. i've listened to the rest of their discography and it's safe to say this is the only album they have worth buying.

now some things that baffled me. coalesce's record ox being number 3 tells me that someone that is IN the band/is related to someone in the band/the band sent decibel magazine money. every coalesce record sounds exactly the same to me. sort of a snapcase meets botch feel, which is the comparisons i hear all the time. snapcase and botch may have cracked top 20, but i disagree with them being so high. a lot of people jock them because they've been around a long time but they've never done anything groundbreaking in my opinion. like i said, all their songs sound the same to me, it's generic and gets old fast for me. the new napalm death was the biggest disappointment of the year, this record shouldn't even be on the list. slayer will never top reign in blood, this record shouldn't that high on the count, maybe 30-40 just because it's slayer. isis deserves to be there in some way, but not as high because wavering radiant will never be panopticon or even oceanic. they can do much better. was not into wormwood by marduk at all. but again, i'm not that into black metal so this record didn't do much for me. texturally it's good, there's real creative musicianship at work, but again it's just not really my thing. i never liked nile and i never liked mastodon. mastodon just doesn't make sense to me, it seems that their fanbase spends most of their time chugging beer and growing their hair, so maybe if i dropped the straight edge lifestyle and grew my hair i'd like mastodon. needless to say i wouldn't even listen to the new record let alone put it on a personal favorites list.

so my top 10 is like this:

10. Black Dahlia Murder - Deflorate (which isn't even mentioned in decibel. don't expect miasma, but it's still a really well put together record)

9. Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse (like i said, they originally were just a scattered mess of grindcore with a 600 bpm drum machine, but with the addition of a female vocalist and some sort of song structure, this release by them is very mature and tasteful from what it was. comes highly recommended)

8. The Red Chord - Fed Through The Teeth Machine (their best release to date. after fused together in revolving doors, they sort of fell off between a plethora of side projects like dim mak and ladder up the ass, and two non-memorable albums in clients and prey for eyes, but red chord comes back REAL HARD with this one. if you liked all their material to date, you'll like this one the most)

7. Portal - Swarth (perhaps a little shorter in length that a good record should be, but i had never heard this band and don't really know anything about them except that they definitely put out one of the best records of 2009. take a listen, it's pretty bad ass, albeit short)

6. Architects - Hollow Crown (i wasn't familiar with this band either until a few weeks ago when i downloaded this shit. it's really really catchy and in your face. it reminds me of dead and buried or nourish the flame [now known as choose your weapon]. i'm very skeptical of discovering a new band and tend not to give them as much credibility as i should, but this one blew me away.)

5. Burnt By The Sun - Heart Of Darkness (if this isn't in your tops of the year, you're looney. it's an amazing record by an amazing group of guys, and like i previously stated, it's slated as their last release ever so even if you don't like it as much as say, soundtrack to the personal revolution, you should still pick this up)

4. Shrinebuilder - Shrinebuilder (it's only 5 songs averaging 7 and a half minutes a piece, but this shit is incredible. i'm not really sure how decibel magazine looked past this. how coalesce and napalm death's horrid records cracked the top 10 and this isn't even in the top 40 blows my mind. i'm not sure who works at that place but their credibility is really starting to slip with this one. AMAZING record. anyone who likes metal, old or new, will love this. it reminds me a lot of black sabbath or even ronnie james dio's solo stuff, but a lot heavier. epic miss there, decibel.)

3. Obscura - Cosmogenesis (this was mentioned and is pretty high on their list so at least we agree on some things. very progressive death metal here. i'm usually not into concept albums, i usually feel they're kinda self righteous and gimmicky, but this is a very lucid, intelligent release and i think any fan of the heavier side of music would really dig this.)

2. Lewd Acts - Black Eye Blues (i doubt many at decibel are into hardcore "punk", they have a tendency to lean to more metal influenced hardcore bands. but this is an awesome upbeat, and rather surprising release from deathwish inc. i really wasn't expecting much from this but i love this record. there's only one album i loved more this year than this one which means it's pretty fucking good. go get it.)

1. Converge - Axe To Fall (everyone has been talking about this. considering this is one of my all time favorite bands, this is extremely biased, but axe to fall is not only the best release of 2009, but the best of converge's legendary career. they've had plenty of other LP's, splits, and demos since their inception into boston's hardcore scene in 1994, but they've come full circle and made a truely career-defining album with this one. it's changed everything and has set the bar for any up and coming band remotely influenced by converge. this record is like jacob bannon waving his middle finger to the music making masses saying "here you go...beat THAT.")

one more time. this is just my opinion. i'm not a musical expert and haven't heard every album released this year to say i know everything. fact is no one has. you can't listen to every single cd released in an entire year, it's impossible. lastly the only reason baroness wasn't mentioned is because i have yet to hear the blue album, but if anyone has it send a copy/download link my way. i've heard nothing but good things.

spinach.

Davey Bx

WHERE HAS ALL THE STRAIGHT EDGE GONE?

Straight edge – an idealistic movement instituted by pioneers of the American hardcore punk scene which promotes a clean lifestyle (i.e. abstaining from drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and unsafe promiscuous sex) and a strong camaraderie among fellow members of the scene.

So what the fuck happened? Sure it still exists, but straight edge is a dying breed for sure. I suppose I can start by giving a non-cited, abridged version of the overall history of straight edge in hardcore. Please comment with corrections where needed as this is all from the confines of my brain and not encyclopedias or the internet. So if I was misinformed, not my problem.

The Beginning

When Minor Threat lead singer Ian Mckaye penned the lyrics to his anthem “Straight Edge,” he was reciting his own philosophy of a clean lifestyle and why he felt the need to rebel against the societal norms of intoxication and addiction happening all around him. I doubt he ever imagined that the message in his music would ultimately put a lot of things in perspective for fellow hardcore youth, who would model their own lives around his philosophy.

Although Minor Threat called it quits in 1983, the ideals in their songs lived on, even today. The idolatry that is their discography was full of a simple way of life that could potentially change society and keep American teens of the 80’s from turning into sex-addicted, recreational drug abusing, alcoholic, dead beats. The three main tenants practiced by Mckaye and other straight edgers included:
- no drinking
- no smoking
- no promiscuous sex
Within a small span of time, other hardcore punks got the snowball rolling and actively identified themselves as straight edge bands. Bands like SS Decontrol, Uniform Choice, and DYS (Department of Youth Services), all embraced this same clean way of living. They preached about straight edge in their lyrics and between songs and sets at their shows. Though this was the first push for what would be considered one of the most influential movements in American music in the early to mid 80’s, it was the scenes in New York and New England that would make straight edge living the most prevalent.

Initiated by bands like Youth Of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, Side By Side, Judge, Bold, and a plethora of others, a hardcore scene of predominantly young and organized teenagers molded itself and spread like herpes. The sound and scene to which these bands and others like them resided was coined “youth crew,” after a Youth Of Today song by the same title.

Straight Edge In The 90’s

With the Youth Crew movement lasting between the mid 80’s and early 90’s, bands broke up and the people involved “grew up” (for lack of a better term) and moved on. Though these founding bands drifted apart, a new wave of musicians and hardcore youth was proliferating. With a heavier, more metallic sound and more steadfast, ardent and militant beliefs construed in their lyrics, bands like Earth Crisis, Strife, Unbroken, Snapcase, and Path Of Resistance paved the road for a new wave of straight edge hardcore. This second wave flourished and the bands responsible for it grew in popularity, not only gathering a new following of straightedge/hardcore converts, but also attracted national media attention:



The mid 90’s also saw a “Youth Crew Revival” of sorts. This was perpetrated by proclaimed straight edge bands that did not conform to the more popular metallic influence as heard with other 90’s hardcore bands. Bands like Ten Yard Fight, In My Eyes, Floorpunch, and Rancor all portrayed this revisited youth crew style.

Straight Edge In The New Millenium

At the end of the decade and the start of a new century, a wide number of the biggest names in straight edge hardcore called it quits. Such bands included Ten Yard Fight, arguably the most popular act from the Youth Crew Revival of the mid 90’s. They played their last show on October 17th of 1999 at a festival labeled National Straightedge Day or “Edge Day,” which became an unofficial annual holiday celebrated by straight edge people worldwide. Earth Crisis, the biggest vegan straight edge band of the 90’s also played (which was at the time) their last show at Hellfest in the summer of 2001. It goes without saying that the early part of this century has had a lot of ups and downs in both the number of straight edge kids and bands alike. With no real rhyme or reason aside from media “exposing” straight edge as some type of street gang, mostly due to followers of the hardline subculture, militant animal rights activism, and the foundation of FSU, there simply are not an overwhelming number of straight edge bands as there once were. However, the ones that are around are still doing it with just as much heart and conviction as those before them. Apart from now disbanded “super groups” of the straight edge movement like A18 and Over My Dead Body, some bands that still carry the message are xAFBx (Armed For Battle), Down To Nothing, Embrace Today, and Suffocate Faster.

I suppose now I will take the time to say that despite everything you read above, and any statement I’ve made or will make in the future about straight edge, personally I feel that straight edge is a CHOICE. I would never push or preach my views, beliefs, or philosophies on/to anyone. Anything I’ve written about straightedge from a first-person perspective is purely my opinion, my choice, and my conscious right as a human to be a healthy individual. It is by no means a pompous ideology or juvenile dick measuring contest. I’m not trying to profess that I’m in any way better than anybody simply because I believe in a movement that is (what I feel) the right fit for me. It’s the lifestyle I chose for myself. On behalf of the straight edge hardcore scene, I welcome anyone that wishes to be a part of it; perhaps reading this has inspired someone to look at what they’re doing and decide it’s time for a change. If you’re not straight edge, in that you drink alcohol, you use drugs, you smoke cigarettes, or you’ve had sex with everyone that would have you, that doesn’t mean I automatically think you’re a bad person or I’m any better than you. When it comes down to it, we’re all one race, the human race, and since the dawn of the hardcore scene, unity has been the major proponent amongst its fans, and something I believe in just as much as straight edge and no one should ever feel like they don’t belong.

There are a few things I feel I should define for those not familiar with certain other aspects of the hardcore scene that I have mentioned in this article, to further extend your understanding.

Veganism And Straight Edge: With bands like Earth Crisis, Birthright, and others singing about veganism and animal rights as well as straight edge, many people outside and even some within the hardcore community perceive veganism as part of the straight edge ethic. While it is certainly compatible with the straight edge ideal of clean living, veganism is NOT part of straight edge, although many bands in the 90’s and present day are vegan or vegetarian.

“X” Marks The Spot: The letter X has been commonly associated with straight edge since it’s inception in the hardcore community. According to Dischord Records, the prevalent “X on the back of the hand” can be traced back to a west coast swing by band Teen Idles (another Ian Mckaye band, prior to Minor Threat). They were to play a 21+ club in San Francisco, but because the band members were not of legal drinking age, they were denied access to the club. In compromise, management marked the backs of each band member’s hand with an “X” to signify to staff that they were under age and should not be served alcohol. Upon their return to DC, the band suggested to other clubs to adopt the same system to allow younger fans access to venues that served alcohol, without risk of serving minors.

Straight edge is also regularly represented with an array of three X’s. This XXX variation originated in artwork done by Jeff Nelson, drummer for Minor Threat, where he replaced the three stars of Washington DC’s flag (the band’s hometown) with X’s.

The term straight edge can also be denoted with the abbreviation sXe. By way of analogy, straight edge hardcore can also be abbreviated as hXc. Lastly, a person’s name or band can be signified as being straight edge by the addition of X’s to the front and back, for example, the bands Xlooking forwardX and xDEATHSTARx.

The Hardline Subculture: Hardline straight edge rooted in the early 90’s of the straight edge movement, with it’s name taken from band Vegan Reich’s EP titled “Hardline”. The philosophy of its followers was a more radically strict version of already established straight edge doctrines. Aside from tobacco, illicit drugs, and alcohol consumption being frowned upon, hardliners, as they were called, also did not use prescription medications, did not consume caffeine, resisted all sexual activities except those for procreation, and followed a very strict dietary regimen. The subculture’s food politics were very conservative and showed an affinity for respecting innocent life and the natural order. Hardliners ate only vegan and natural foods, shunned third-world crops such as coffee, sugar cane, and cocoa, and chose brown over white rice, natural vegetable oils over hydrogenated, etc. Their sexual politics kept with an Abrahamic respect of the natural order in that sex was not allowed aside from the purpose of procreation. Homosexuality was considered an abomination, pornography was renounced, artificial contraception was abjured, and abortion was militantly opposed.

FSU: Formed by Elgin James out of the Boston hardcore scene, in response to racist, skinhead gangs attending shows and using intimidation tactics to scare others. Standing for Friends Stand United, FSU is widely viewed by media outlets and federal and local law enforcement as a violent street gang, with many chapters established in the US and Canada. Some members follow the straight edge lifestyle.

So in closing, I’d like to say that I am not vegan or vegetarian. I love animals like the next guy, but have you ever seen a HEALTHY looking vegan? Mostly they’re very pale and deathly skinny and their poop smells horrific (speaking from experience). I like my turkey on thanksgiving, my ham on easter, and my burgers and dogs on the Fourth. I don’t draw X’s on the backs of my hands when attending hardcore shows. I’m there for the music because it’s what I love and I think being a walking billboard for straight edge may skew some impressions of me and I’d rather not come across as a pompous asshole. I’m not hardline nor have I ever agreed with hardline views. Their political philosophies go deeper than anyone should be willing to commit to. They’re like militant utopian hippies without the drug use and free love. Lastly, I support my local FSU. Some chapters in some places may be into illegal activities, but that’s their business and none of my concern. Kids in Philly have been keeping idiot skinheads out of shows before Friends Stand United was even organized, and that’s the way it should be. So in my opinion, FSU in southeastern PA is doing nothing wrong but looking out for everybody. Neo-fascism and racial violence has no place in the hardcore scene.

Davey Bx

(Yeah I sign my name with an X at the end. Now you know what it implies.)

Let's Break Down That Breakdown

I have two things in mind for my next two posts, both of which may either be controversial, informative (at the very least), or just wrong, as you may see it. I want to apologize ahead of time, if you find my views disagreeable. A few months ago, I would have definitely found a bit of it very disagreeable. All of this will be clarified, I promise.

My first idea will be handled presently. And to some extent, if you're a long-time hardcore-show-attendee, what I am about to say will seem arbitrary or obvious, but to people like (most) of my friends, this will be surprising, and hard to accept. But this is about hardcore dancing, and how not only is it acceptable (in it's proper context), but also it makes just as much if not more sense to dance to hardcore as it does to mosh to metal. Again, it's all about context; just to prologue this argument, any time I mention hardcore dancing, as appropriate, I mean as appropriate to hardcore, hardcore punk, metalcore, whatever the fuck you want to fucking label it. If you're not informed about what contexts I'm talking about, read the next few paragraphs; if you are, you can skip down a bit.

Contexts for Dancing:

Mainly, the music appropriate for hardcore dancing must be hardcore punk, and it's more modern derivatives. What qualifies as a derivative is way to complicated nowadays. But let me try and break it down (pun intended).

Hardcore is now more predominately metal-influenced; take a band like anything on Deathwish, Hatebreed, Throwdown, Madball, and the (rather good, in my opinion) newbies like some of the stuff on Bridge Nine. So that, along with the more traditionally punkier sounding roots (Minor Threat being in mind of course), is all called "hardcore", for better or worse. Today, and perhaps since Shai Hulud, we've had some oddity called "metalcore". This name also applies to two things: one of them is a metal-breakdown infusion which became popular as of the beginning of the 2000s, including bands like As I Lay Dying, Parkway Drive, August Burns Red, and you can include Underoath or The Devil Wears Prada if you like, though I tend to find them a bit too "light" for that label. I'd say those sorts of bands are more "post-hardcore" (to be explained in a second), but whatever. What makes them "-core" at all, is simply the amount of breakdowns included. But then why is As I Lay Dying called metalcore? They use little to no breakdowns. It's just metal, but the amount of melodicism involved identifies it with a "scene" which a more melodic, expressive sort of music. (This is the subject of my upcoming post, so you'll just have to stay in the dark for now, though most of you know what I mean, I guess.) The other side of "metalcore" would be a true hardcore + metal = metalcore mixture. Shai Hulud seems the most appropriate example, though under these rules, almost any modern hardcore band could be called metalcore, and they are not. So I need to amend this ever so slightly: it's more so hardcore + metal = metalcore if and only if the mixture is predominately metal. If it's not predominately metal, and has come out in the last few years, it should be called hardcore, because that's sort of what hardcore is nowadays. For instance, Hatebreed, although I'd call them hardcore, as a fan base more metal-inclined. Go to iTunes, see what most people buy with Hatebreed albums: Lamb of God, Shadows Fall, and the like. So that's hardcore and metalcore; lastly, we have "post-hardcore". This is sort of the beginnings of what people sillily today call "emo". Emo (in the punk-sense) started with Fugazi (or arguably with a band called Rites of Spring in '85), because they had emotional on stage performances. No other reason. And post-hardcore is more or less the mixture of hardcore and 90s rock that pooped out of...well, the 90s. Quicksand comes to mind (Walter Schreifels's project after Gorilla Biscuits) immediately as (perhaps) one its pioneers. But today, the name "post-hardcore" really ends up applied to bands like Circa Survive, Saosin, Boysetsfire (when they were around), Escape the Fate, Vanna, and tons more newer groups signed to Epitaph and Equal Vision and Victory in the last few years. For better or worse, these bands are more a mix of modern indie rock and screamo, with perhaps some hardcore roots. I mean, Circa Survive, the only band I listed I truly love, is made up of dudes from This Day Forward, which was a post-hardcore band in Philly from '97-'03. But listening to them, you really hear the hardcore influence: why it still gets called post-hardcore is because it actually was a mix of hardcore and 90s rock/emo. (Keep in mind, "emo" also applies to a bunch of bands like Texas Is the Reason, Sunny Day Real Estate, Mineral, American Football, and Jimmy Eat World which became popular in the 90s; that is what I meant by "90s rock/emo" there.)

Now, what makes these groups appropriate for hardcore dancing? Well, hardcore nowadays normally comprises three main rhythmic motifs: a back-beated chug, punk rhythm, and breakdowns. Go listen to Reign Supreme's "And Come What May": here's the rhythms you hear in that tune (in the order they come up) in the first minute alone: 1. Punk; 2. Breakdown; 3. Chug. You hear those there main rhythmic ideas right in the first minute of that tune (by the way, it's just on their myspace, go check it out both because RS is pretty good, and because if you don't know what I'm talking about, you'll have a nice sample). I purposely used Reign Supreme because they are a quite modern version of hardcore, and the more "modern" you get, the more the prevalence of rhythms 2 and 3 pop up, as opposed to 1. In order words, it's gotten less "punk", at least rhythmically. But regardless, that was just in case you weren't familiar with that sort of stuff. Obviously those are not the only three, but those are the most typical. And it's these beats that induce hardcore dancing mostly: and more so with chugs and breakdowns than anything. It's "rhythmic" in such a way that warrants it literally danceable. And in general, it's back-beats that make that possible: for breakdowns, it's just the shear intensity of the moment that (I feel) ends up producing hardcore dancing. But we'll get to that.

This was all very confusing. But making my exposition any clearer would mean taking more time out of doing my homework, and I just can't spare it. Plus, sleeping is fun. Gonna wanna do that later, maybe are 5 in the morning. College is fun.

Psht.

Anyway, so yeah. Where and when is dancing appropriate, and why? I used to be, as most of my friends still are, ardent haters of hardcore dancing. It just seemed so pointless, and moreover, just ended up hurting people, badly. And to some extent, the fact that it ends up being so unsafe pisses me off, but that's sort of how pits work. They are going to be slightly unsafe somehow. But mainly people only get seriously hurt when some stupid motherfucker is not contributing fruitfully to the pit, and, as I will call it, is pitting selfishly. He's dancing as if he's the only dude there, and is completely and utterly careless of the people in the pit with him. Does he need to avoid everyone? Of course, not; actually, if he did, he'd be pitting a bit overcautiously. The whole idea is it can involve physical contact. That's okay. It's when you are swinging you fists around aimlessly knowingly about to slam into the side of the pit, when kids are just trying to enjoy the show (i.e. not pitting), then I have a problem with you. The pit is a communal experience, and when someone doesn't help someone else up, or gets in a fight, or hits people not actually in the pit, then you need to relax and start contributing to the experience for the people actually in the pit, without hurting them seriously.

But that point applies to all forms of moshing: what about hardcore dancing itself? What makes that ever excusable? I suppose I used to just find it stupid. It just looked stupid. But that was foolish, the main reason being that I had no good reason to find it stupid. I definitely didn't understand it, and if you read this blog regularly, you may have found: I am a strict believer in don't-say-anything-without-good-reason (unless you think you have a good reason to suggest why something isn't music). Hardcore dancing is simply a form of expression: it's literally dancing, you take the obvious back-beat that occurs in a lot of hardcore riffs and simply express it in motion, like you would to any dance tune with (an even more obvious) back-beat. And for the breakdowns: it's a moment where all of the intensity of the song builds up, so much so it feels about to boil over into a sea of boiling dead sea creatures that happened to be passing by. Sucks. Anyway, dancing to the breakdowns are notoriously more intense: that's why you see more flailing about, more spin kicks and shit, whatever. I'm not too interested in the technicalities. All I know to argue is that it's not only permissible, it's appropriate. Moshing in the usual sense is merely an expression of the intensity of the musical experience: it's so intense in fact that it's expression takes the form of some sort of odd, communal wave of people, all simply loving what they are hearing. And the physical togetherness is a bit lost in a hardcore pit: a lot of the time, it's possible to have just a bunch of kids dancing with no interaction. But that doesn't make it any less communal. What do you when someone falls? You help them the fuck up. If you don't, or you intentionally cause a fight, you're are ruining the experience for everyone, and you know you are. No one is actually supposed to risk their life and limb in a pit. You'll get hurt, yes, but if you break a bone, it's probably because some fuck was being too rough, or in general no one was looking out for each other. That is not what a pit is, and it's clear I think, that both hardcore and metal pits share that quality which makes them selfish or ill-formed: people not looking out for each other. If you finish moshing/dancing/parading/circling and feel like you've just climbed a mountain, you, and probably everyone else, did something right. Now that's a pit.

Thanks for listening, bitches. Go listen to Tombs, Baroness, Gaza, Coalesce, Brutal Truth, Doomriders, Lewd Acts, Ion Dissonance, Pulling Teeth, and Polar Bear Club. Just a few of the bands I've slobbered over recently.