Suis La Lune - Heir (2008)

Band: Suis La Lune
Album: Heir
Year: 2008
Country: Sweden
To me it feels like this really good record was released yesterday, and since we haven't uploaded it yet, I decided to do so. I got in complete shock when I realised this was released in 2008. That was like 3 years ago. And so the age crisis kicks in...
Anyways, Suis La Lune has forever been, and will always be, one of Sweden's emo sweethearts. Maybe the whole world's emo sweethearts actually, they've toured Europe and the US after two releases and have been praised since then. Even the fact that their lyrics mostly suck is forgiven. I think people look pass that in this case since you will have trouble hearing the actual words most of the time. They're most often whined or mumbled, or just drowned by the guitar. The vocals are heart aching and perfect for the genre though. They're very picky and careful with writing music, and it shows. Even though it's screamo, and very chaotic at times, their thing is to include very melodic light parts with soft sweeps of hope as well. Which actually makes it pleasant to listen to by others who don't have a sadomasochistic music taste, or like to roll around in self pity.

Song(s) you should listen to: Well, it's just an EP, so you better listen to all four songs. They all shift from soft beautiful melodies to chaotic and epileptic bunny thump parts. Just enough to keep you focused for the next 15 minutes.

MYSPACE / DOWNLOAD

I Hate Myself - 3 Songs (2005)

Band; I Hate Myself

Album: 3 Songs

Year: 2005

Country: United States

When I choose albums to write about on this blog I try to find albums that are "fresh" or albums that I think deserves more listeners. Very "hipsterish" I know but I just find it more interesting that way. This time we'll try something different. Anyone who consider themselves to be a fan of the emo-genre have most likely already stumbled across I Hate Myself. I guess you can say that they are kind of a "gateway-band" to the genre. This is the last record that the Marburger brothers ever recorded under the name I Hate Myself, since then they have been performing in other bands such as Burnman and Die Hoffnung.

The album was released as a one-sided LP containing three songs (well duh!) and is inspired by the life of Roy Sullivan. Roy Sullivan was a park ranger who lived in Virginia, United States. Between the years 1942-1977 Roy was hit by lightning on seven various occasions but amazingly enough he survived all of them. Eventually people started avoiding the man, afraid that they too would get hit by lightning. That made him very sad of course and on the 28th of September 1983, at the age of 71, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the stomach. I have heard other stories saying he shot himself because his wife left him but it's a very sad story anyway.

"Sadness" is very strongly represented on this album. Unlike earlier releases by I Hate Myself these three songs are very mellow and not as spastic as other songs. Apart from some screaming on the first song Roy Sullivan, By Lightning Loved the lyrics are smoothly sung through the whole album, making this a very soft album compared to they're previous releases. But according to me this is by far the best songs that this band ever recorded. The songs, the aesthetic and the theme of the album is just so perfectly fit together. Apart from that I think that the song is by far the best Jim Marburger has ever sung on a I Hate Myself release, I don't even miss the desperate screaming and the pitiful whining from previous songs.

Whenever I get in the mood for some I Hate Myself this is the record I always put on and I find it very hard to part from it. Not that I would ever want to.

Song(s) you should listen to: My favorite is definitely Roy Sullivan, By Lightning Loved. The middle part is really soothing and that one hit on the snare drum right before the song kicks off at 2:35 always makes me smile. From there the song just pours itself over you with emotion.

The Lightning Says. I can't stop thinking that the last words I Hate Myself ever sung was "I love you, love me too". Brilliant, just brilliant.

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Filigram - La Victorie De L'Homme Sur L'Homme (2008)

Band: Filigram
Album: La Victorie De L'Homme Sur L'Homme
Year: 2008
Country: France
I was reading a review on this album on some other blog, and it sounded quite interesting. Then I found out that they were from France, and my expectations grew sky high. French music has always been very close to my heart, probably mostly because they always seem to capture emotions in their music in an extraordinary way. I guess it's in France's artistic and romantic history, because no other country has such a big amount of great bands. And even though Filigram's guitarist calls himself Gaylord, their music is as serious, heartbreaking, and emotional as we're used to.
The best way to describe Filigram is to imagine a French version of the Japanese screamo band Heaven In Her Arms. They have the same concept with slow and mellow parts, combined with melodic guitar riffs. The vocals in Filigram are also very good, they top the despair factor. Filigram plays kind of slow for being a screamo band, but with these vocals they don't need to play chaotic to make it emotional.

Song(s) you should listen to: I really dig the intro of A'Louest, it pretty much makes the whole song. It starts off like an old western movie, pretty calm but dark. Then the tension grows more and more, and soon it will hoover into one of those classic Heaven In Her Arms-parts I was talking about before.

MYSPACE / DOWNLOAD

Skt. Conrad - S/T (2007)

Band: Skt. Conrad
Album: S/T
Year: 2007
Country: Denmark

These danish sweethearts wasn't a very long lived band. They came out with a album, an EP, played some shows in their country, and then LE POUFF, they were gone. I heard about them a year or two ago from a friend who tends to dig up bands from their graves. And nowadays Skt. Conrad seems to be a pretty popular band amongst the skramz kids.
Denmark isn't a country famous for making good music (even though they have some diamonds, and more to come), so I was very surprised when I heard about their origin, and the fact that they wrote some songs in Danish. This album actually starts off very nicely with a song in Danish, and it doesn't sound bad at all! To us Swedes, Danish is normally a kind of a "drunken" and totally hilarious language, but it doesn't sound like this here.
When it comes to the music, it's not something new and bizarre you would have a very hard time to listen to. It's quite the opposite, they are going with the 90's emo thing, so it's pretty simple. They mostly use clean vocals, with some screaming in the chorus. If they had continued to play until today, they probably be a big commercial band.

Song(s) you should listen to: Freezing In November is the typical Skt. Conrad song. It starts out a bit shy, but it will grow into a black and battled teenage angst choir. The biggest reason for listening to this song though, is that the singer sound so sad and heartbroken. You will feel pity for this little boy.

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Resurrectionists / Battle of Wolf 359 - Split (2010)

Bands: Resurrectionists & Battle Of Wolf 359

Album: Split 10"

Year: 2010

Country: Germany, UK

Yeah we've been lazy as hell lately I know, theres no real excuse to that so I'm just gonna leave it for you to se if you can find it in your broken, black hearts to forgive us.

If not then I strongly suggest that you download this, press play, play it louder than hell and just start beating your fists against the walls.

I picked this record up at a show last night and sweet spawn of Satan is this a good album! It sweeps you off your feat and while lying down it continues to beat you to a pulp. No mercy.

So what was it that just made you its bitch? Resurrectionists play some sort of screamo-influenced powerviolence and Battle of Wolf 359 plays dark, fast screamo/hardcore with some sweet melodies hidden between all the chaos. So now that we have identified your target, get on your feet and get ready for round two. This time you'll be ready for whats coming.

Song(s) you should listen to: Born Into Fire

This song starts of quite slow and sweettalks you into a sense of comfort but don't let it fool you. It suddenly explodes and unleashes a cluster of heavy riffs, wave after wave.

MYSPACE (RES),MYSPACE (BOW359), DOWNLOAD

The Saddest Landscape - You Will Not Survive (2010)

Band: The Saddest Landscape

Album: You Will Not Survive

Year: 2010

Country: United States

This band has been around for a while now and managed to establish a wide spread fanbase in the screamo-scene. I was lucky enough to catch these guys live when they played in Malmö this year, without a doubt one of the best gigs I've ever attended and really nice guys overall.

Anyhow they're latest effort "You Will Not Survive" is nothing short of a screamo-masterpiece. The softer melodic parts together with chaotic outbursts of emotion together with Andy's desperate vocals almost brings a tear to your eye. Also I have to give an eloge to the drumming on this record, not something I usually pay that much attention to but this time is different.

If this release is to your liking please show your support to this band by buying they're records or going to they're shows or whatever. They really work hard doing something they love and deserve to be recognized for it.

Song(s) you should listen to: So Lightly Thrown

My favourite of the record. If you know TSL since before you know how exceptional they are at creating those heartbreaking-sing-a-long-till-your-throat-bleeds-moments. The ending part of this song just makes me wish I was back at that time in Malmö when nothing but inches of thin air stood between me and the microphone.

MYSPACE/BUY

Suffocate For Fuck Sake - Suffocate For Fuck Sake (2004)

Band: Suffocate For Fuck Sake

Album: Suffocate For Fuck Sake

Year: 2004

Country: Sweden

Thought i'd upload this since the 2008 LP already is up and running. The main theme is the same as on the LP, epic post-rock and heavy sludge fused togethet with a storyline told through samples in the songs. This story I think is a bit sadder and darker than the LP. We get to follow a man named Hasse who has a very serious condtion, he cant sit down.

Song(s) you should listen to: Just like before you really should listen to the whole album from the beginning to the end to get out the most of the experience. But if you just want to listen to a song because you want to hear good music i especially like the first song "Hospital/H/The Social Worker Dragon" and "Promenade".

MYSPACE / DOWNLOAD

Palehorse - Habitual Linestepper (2008)

Band: Palehorse
Album: Habitual Linestepper
Year: 2008
Country: United Kingdom
I came across this band when I was supposed to find some music by the hardcore band Palehorse from Connecticut, USA on Spotify. But I found this band instead, which I've never heard of before.
Anyways, I liked their music, and thought their album title was pretty clever, so I did a checkup on the band. Turns out that they are a pretty known band in the sludge scene of UK. And they are sure playing sludge. Their music is fairly slow and very heavy. One thing that surprised me was the vocals that sounds a lot that something that could fit in any screamo band. If you gave the drummer some POWERTHIRST so he would drum more energetic, maybe this would be liked by all the skramz kids out there.
The band consists of a drummer, two vocalists, and two bass players. Nothing more, nothing less. Who need guitars anyway?

Song(s) you should listen to: We Cannot Love You
This song starts out pretty slow and sad, and with a really catchy bassline, that continues pretty much through the whole song. Then the sludge will squirt all it's juice over you.

MYSPACE / DOWNLOAD

Suffocate For Fuck Sake - Blazing Fires And Helicopters On The Frontpage Of The Newspaper. There's A War Going On And I'm Marching In Heavy Boots (2008)

Band: Suffocate For Fuck Sake
Album: Blazing Fires And Helicopters On The Frontpage Of The Newspaper. There's A War Going On And I'm Marching In Heavy Boots
Year: 2008
Country: Sweden
Once upon a time about two years ago, I was sitting by the computer, and a friend who I hadn't heard anything from for a while wrote "HAVE YOU HEARD THIS EPIC SHIT?!" on msn. This guy was the one who once introduced me to Mihai Edrisch, so I was pretty eager about his new discovery. He sended me the album, which has the longest name I've ever seen, and I cranked up the volume. Since then I've never been the same.
Suffocate For Fuck Sake is a pretty decent band mixing a lot of different genres. But the way they're doing it is really extraordinary. This album follows the narrative of a depressed woman, starting around the time she tried to comitted suicide for the first time. She, her mom, her best friend, the doctor etc. are talking in between the songs, with the music going in the background as some kind of soundtrack. So we get to follow this girl through years of depression, from hospitalizing to recovery.
This maybe doesn't sound like much of a deal, but it's really hard to describe this album in a fair way. Just listen to it, you will get blown away.

Song(s) you should listen to: The album itself is a story, so if you're just listen to a track here and there in no particular order, it will turn out to be nonsense. But, the storytelling is in Swedish, so if you don't know the language the telling will be nonsense anyway (but there should be an english translation to be found somewhere, they printed translations in the booklet). But I will still recommend you to start with the first song Blue Lights And Sunshine. It still gets me to poop in my pants at occasions.

MYSPACE / DOWNLOAD

Mihai Edrisch - Un Jour Sans Lendemain (2006)

Band: Mihai Edrisch
Album: Un Jour Sans Lendemain
Year: 2006
Country: France
Everyone knows Elton John's song The Circle Of Life, right? Well, this is the updated more realistic version of it. The tracks of this album are titled so you get Mihai Edrisch's interpretation of life. You start with being born, you march forward, you start to live, then you fall in love. After that you suffer, but somehow you get a glimpse of hope, and forget, so you survive. Then, you die.
One interpretation is that you're going through all that, then you forget and survive, but years after you die the natural way. But since it's Mihai Edrisch, I think the interpretation should be a lot more complex. In the very end of the outro, you can hear some old wood creak, then a loud bang. Since there's a rope in the tree of the album cover, I think the creak is someone climbing up a chair, gets his/her head in the noose, then kicks the chair which crashes to the floor and makes the loud bang. I jump to the conclusion that the narrator couldn't forget, and committed suicide.

Song(s) you should listen to: Mourir
This song is that last on the album, and it stands out a bit from the rest. It starts off pretty calm and delightful, but of course the atmosphere builds up and leads to Mihai-ordinary chaos. Then it finishes with the words "Comme une dernière image, celle que je veux peut être garder de nous, je serai là, pour toujours, suspendu à tes lèvres…", which can be roughly translated to "As the last picture I want to keep precious, I'll be there forever, hanging on to your lips". As the romantic hypocrite I am, my heart is melting.

MYSPACE / DOWNLOAD

Mihai Edrisch - L'un Sans L'autre (2003)

Band: Mihai Edrisch
Album: L'un Sans L'autre
Year: 2003
Country: France
This album is a slap of desperation in your face. It starts of with an innocent intro of kids in a playground, but don't let that fool you, on the next track hell will break loose. The first half of the album is so intense you have to be prepared to get an epileptic seisure any time. After that there's some kind of interlude, so you will make it from the epileptic seisures. Then part two kicks in, which is so heartbreaking that it makes you want to curl up and die.
This is not something for those who haven't understood the charm of emotional music. They will probably just think I'm ridiculous. But even though it's almost 10 years this was released, it's still one of my favourite albums. And Mihai Edrisch's vocals are just wonderful. Their lyrics could be in African, Finnish, or the language Chip 'n Dale speaks in a Disney cartoon, the vocalist Johan would still make you understand something is terribly wrong.

Song(s) you should listen to: Everyone, really. Every song is as close to perfection it can get, and no song lack speed, emotion, or anything. But the title track L'un Sans L'autre have a really catchy bass intro, if you're into that.

MYSPACE / DOWNLOAD