1. Withstand – Eyes To Guide Them - …And Anger Was A Warm Place To Hide (1997)
Withstand are my favorite band from Albany. I think I said that on another one of these, but seriously they were awesome. No one else sounded like them. Albany’s hardcore scene had a distinctly metal feel to it that never quite fit into the overall development of metalcore that was happening up and down the east coast. Withstand would shift from simple power chord grooves to intricate metal riffing and back like it was nothing, and vocalist Roger Zalucky had a totally original melodic yell that matched it perfectly. Everyone interested in 90s hardcore should know this band.
2. Section 8 – Broken Glass Memories – Nine Ways To Say I Love You (1997)
If Withstand are my favorite band from the Capital region then Section 8 are a close second. Probably the most popular band within the scene, everyone around that listened to hardcore owned their two albums. Their second, Nine Ways To Say I Love You, is heavier than their debut, but maintains the general idea – Life Of Agony meets Black Sabbath and hardcore. Vocalist Kasey Dorr’s screams are more intense, but he maintains that Life Of Agony/ Type O Negative type croon that was happening at the time. The guitars are tuned super low and the bass has that Korn kind of twang, but don’t let that deter you. You have to remember hardcore and nu-metal were still enjoyed by the same people at this time. “Broken Glass Memories” is a hell of a track – oddly structured and all over the place stylistically. I think it sums up the best of what this band did.
3. Kenshiro – Abdication Of The Red-Handed – Set Ablaze Tenfold (2002)
We heard the second incarnation of this band, Understudy, on an earlier Plaguelist. I claimed that the Understudy demo sounded more focused than the Kenshiro EP and was told by the guy who played drums on both recordings that I was wrong, so here’s some Kenshiro. Think Drowningman, Deadguy and Dillinger with some legit mosh parts. There’s also a ridiculous music video here.
4. Lariat – Monsanto – Means Of Production (2000)
Lariat played insane live shows, with bodies and instruments flying every which direction. It matched the general chaos of the bands music – noisy, raucous turn of the century metalcore. They also had an extremely political edge to their lyrics that made them super intriguing to a teenager growing up in the Albany suburbs like me. They were talking about things like American imperialism in the Mideast, the corporatization of neighborhoods, and police brutality - things that twenty years later are oddly still relevant. I mean they had a song called “Monsanto” before 90% of people knew what Monsanto was. I don’t really know what became of them but I do know their bass player started the more straightforward hardcore band Burning Bridges, who signed to Thorp Records and released some solid stuff.
5. Down Foundation – Nothing – This Time Is Ours (1998)
Albany’s Youth Crew Hardcore band. Classic, simple hardcore with gang vocals galore. If you like early Bane, Champion and bands like that, this is totally for you. There isn’t much more to say than that.
6. End Of Line – Untitled – Common Ground: A Compilation Of Upstate New York’s Hardest (1997)
One thing that a lot of bands from the area had in common, especially in the mid 90s period, was really original sounding vocals. Another thing was China cymbals. End Of Line provided both. After a lengthy, dare I say “epic,” acoustic intro, the band kicks in with their weird brand of metallic hardcore featuring really odd, interesting drumming and strange half yelled, half sung vocals provided by Dayv Wood, who was the brother of One King Down’s Matt Wood (I think). It’s a weird song, sometimes the vocals sound like they are backwards, but they aren’t. Common Ground was a compilation that served as a three way split between End Of Line, Straight Jacket (see below) and Skinless – the early, goofy, highly offensive version of Skinless, before they signed to Relapse Records and got huge. Wood left the band and his replacement was a little more generic, the group released an album with that singer and faded into obscurity. I believe that guy also had a rap group.
7. Straight Jacket – Dreaming Of Life – Straight Jacket (1999)
Pretty much a staple of the live circuit, you would see Straight Jacket on more or less any show around this time. Like End Of Line or Withstand, they had an original take on fusing metal and hardcore but leaned a little bit more towards the grimier side that bands like Stigmata and the whole “Troy-core” scene were doing. What’s really cool about this song is that it features a bunch of local vocalists, like a rap single, but hardcore. Dayv Wood from End Of Line, Kasey Dorr of Section 8 and Ryan Murphy of Cutthroat along with the guitar player and bass player of Straight Jacket all make appearances alongside Greg “Tiny” Kennedy.
8. Endicott – Fairweather Tirade – The Cascade (2001)
There was a period of time I thought Endicott was going to be huge. I was at their first show where they opened (under the name Saydjari) for Isis and Candiria (Dillinger Escape Plan were scheduled to play but Chris Pennie hurt his hand and had to cancel), and also I believe their second show a week later where they opened for Shai Hulud and Kill Your Idols. Pretty decent first couple gigs. I guess that what having a former member of Down Foundation gets you. A couple years later this band was playing to crowds screaming along to every word. The Cascade showcased the bands odd take on melodic metalcore, which at times bordered on some sort of post-hardcore/emo fusion, only without terribly sung vocals. They followed that with a single that had probably their best song, “Taking Back The Hour,” before signing to Equal Vision Records. Unfortunately the EVR release saw the band moving in a totally different direction that just didn’t work for them. But for a few years there, this band seemed slated to do big things.
9. Save Yourself – Teen Pop Icon – Demo (2003?)
I don’t have a lot to say about Save Yourself because I moved out of the area and lost touch with what was happening musically around this time. I saw them open a show that Undying was supposed to play but for some reason didn’t. They impressed me and I bought their demo. It’s chaotic and definitely has some Deadguy feels going on. Their vocalist was in another band previously called Wrath that were pretty popular around the area. I almost put a Wrath song on this, but I didn’t.
10. At War With Shadows – Elusory – Split w/ Lariat (2001)
For being a really metal-centric scene, Albany didn’t really have bands that did the whole metalcore thing that you saw happening in Boston, New Jersey and down south in the Carolinas and Florida. At War With Shadows were probably the closest to that. There was some Prayer For Cleansing type metal stuff happening with this band and they had that really Zao/Carcass style vocals. Their album The Truckstop Tapes is really good, but wouldn’t load into my computer for unknown reasons, so I chose this song off their split with Lariat.
11. Ill Remembered – Oblivion – Hero Park (1999)
A Capital region supergroup of sorts. Kasey Dorr of Section 8 notoriety teams up with former members of Stigmata, notably guitarist Mike Maney, to make a heavy, bluesy rock type record. Ill Remembered was short lived, only releasing this one album before splitting up, but they achieved legendary status. It’s probably the best Kasey’s sung vocals ever sounded and his gothic tone strangely fits with the blues riffs. This is one of only a couple where he screams.
12. One King Down – Absolve – Bloodlust Revenge (1997)
One King Down are the most well known of these bands outside of their home city. I was shocked when I moved away and met people who knew who they were because I didn’t realize just how big they had gotten. Bloodlust Revenge is their best record and “Absolve” is probably their best song. In fact, this album is probably an all time hardcore classic. Rob Fusco’s screamed vocals were ferocious and his spoken word sections have become iconic. Just watch their reunion set from This Is Hardcore from a few years ago. What more can I say? If you don’t own this CD you don’t know shit.
Comments
Post a Comment