Prowler

 

picture by Chon

A short one today about the demo of this new hardcore band hailing from Denver, Colorado.

It looks like the new Denver hardcore scene got something for the super brutal, heavy and extremely angry stomping kind of hardcore (something in the air maybe). If you've heard of James Trejo you may know he is behind some of the sickest releases on Youth Attack Record (Cadaver Dog, Life Support, Snarling Hate to name only a few) and he's from Denver so it didn't come as a surprise when I learned that a proper scene for that kind of sound was on the rise there.

 

 And Gordon, the singer of Prowler, is very much involved in this scene, he's the drummer for Direct Threat, P.S.Y.W.A.R and Raw Breed but also sings in The Consequence (in which James Trejo plays the bass by the way), so yes I think it's safe to say that Gordon is into brutal shit. To be honest, I don't listen to that kind of stuff too much but it reminds me of the energy and heavy anger of the first Boston Strangler LP (Gordon's T-shirt on the above photo!), of No Tolerance, of Violent Reaction from the UK, and of all those bands influenced by the heavy side of the Boston SxE hardcore scene (where at least one band member must have his head shaved!). Anyway I think you got the point now.

 

 

 

 Super rad cover artwork by Rory O'Neill right?

The demo was released on tape (and on bandcamp of course) by Iron Lung a few weeks ago and I was immediately hooked by the kind of furious noise these guys are making.

With five songs out six below the one minute mark, Prowler don't really slow down compared to the bands mentioned before so you got what you except: fast in-your-face hardcore punk, but with a slightly "less aggressive" vibe! Saying that they play a less brutal kind of hardcore than Direct Threat for example would probably be a lie even if it's clear that the influences are clearly different. Where Direct Threat is clearly showing an Oi!-influenced and heavy stomping side (like faster versions of Negative Approach, 86 Mentality or more recently Buggy and Heavy Discipline), Prowler got a slightly lighter (and faster) sound and, most of all, show clear influences of early and pre-Youth Crew hardcore bands from NYC.

 So yes, as mentioned on the bandcamp page, classic names immediately come to mind, names like Youth Of Today, Abused or Antidote (yeah, pretty flattering references), and I'm definitely more into that shit than into the stomping kind.

But here's the main news: this demo totally rips!

Whereas a band like Thought Control clearly takes from the Antidote side of New York Hardcore, Prowler mixes perfectly the early Youth Crew influences (the gang vocals etc...) with some very fast and pummelling drum beats (the drummer's a killer!), catchy bass lines, crushing mosh parts and sharp riffs. And most of all you don't feel like you're listening to the same old hardcore song over and over again, each track got its own distinctive structure and is a total killer!

As a debut release this tape's classified as a demo but, honestly, the whole thing sounds so good it deserves a vinyl release straight away.  

  A full length in a few months maybe?

 

 

 

 

N,J'Oi!

 

You can listen to Prowler on Rien à Faire #34.

 

 

 

 

  

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Candy Apple

 

picture by Cain Cox

Candy Apple is a trio from Denver, Colorado which has probably been around since 2017.

The band features Preston behind the drums, an hyperactive musician who's been involved in a few metal bands like Of Feather And Bone but also in some industrial / ambient / noise electronic projects like Volunteer Coroner, Fentanyl Fantasy, Fresh Bait and Human Tide whose digital and tape records have mostly been released on Preston's own label, Trust Collective. There is also Tristan (guitar) who plays in the very hardcore band The Consequence (which just dropped a new release on Youth Attack) and used to play in Lonely Bones.

As for the third gentleman, unfortunately I don't have much information about him but I think he plays (played?) in Raw Breed.

 

 

You know that usually, when I review a band, I like to go through its full discography in order to give what I believe is a larger and better view of the band's "art".

Well today I'm going to focus on Candy Apple's latest release only for a very simple reason, I was not convinced at all by their two previous records (the 2018 demo tape and the 2019 Joyride tape), so you can of course give them a try but there is no point for me to expand on the fact that I don't like them (tastes and colours you know)...

 

But very recently the band released this:

 

 Sweet Dreams of Violence is Candy Apple's first full length and was released at the very end of April on the Denver-based hardcore punk label Convulse Records (which I know mostly for the killer records of Goon and Yambag but most of their other stuff is also worth a listen).

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Une publication partagée par Convulse Records (@convulserecords)

The album starts with a short intro that could have been misleading if the cover artwork (photo by Cain Cox, layout by Tristan and Preston) hadn't already clearly announced the tone. It's a hardcore punk record intro guys, these guys are gonna play fast and dirty, beat the shit out of the drumhead, hammer the strings of their instruments like maniacs and, above all, push the limits of vocals reeking of rage and despair.

The band has taken the decision to sound (a little) dirty, to sound "noisy", an approach that can be found a lot at the moment in American bands who know how to take advantage of an almost infinite history of hardcore punk bands while going for a noisy-on-purpose but powerful outcome. But Candy Apple is far from being a copy cat of a specific 80s USHC band, listen to the "heavy" and heartbreaking riffs of Deathwish, to the super angry Brain Dead that floats on a pond of noise where punk almost mixes with grunge... It makes me think of some of the songs of Black Button or Rascal to only mention recent bands.

And there is of course the very surprising The Cowboy, a grunge ballad very out of step with the rest of the record, which nevertheless manages to fit in a certain continuity thanks to this "noisy and dirty" coherence of the whole. 

Medicine, the final song of a way too short 9-track album, concludes the lot with a perfect balance of fast "trash" punk and grunge riffs, which is probably exactly what the band wanna sound like.

 

 

Candy Apple manage to maintain a high level of energy despite the interesting diversity of their songs' profiles. It's hardcore for most of it, it's grungy, dark or heavy also at times but most of all, it's punk! In a nutshell, it's a good record!

 

 

You can listen to Candy Apple on Rien à Faire #22. 

  

 

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