I'm not the biggest fan of what is generally referred to as "screamo". Most of the stuff that I've heard from this scene seems to lack any real power, and
the mainstream aims of alot of the bands that carry that tag is sort of a turnoff for me too. So much of the whole fall-on-the-floor, overwrought, messy,
post-Hardcore thing seems like a dissipated shadow of what was cutting edge in San Diego about 15 years ago (i.e., Gravity Records, Heroin, Antioch Arrow,
Universal Order of Armageddon, Swing Kids, Mohinder, etc). Every once in a while though, I'll stumble across a band from that scene that really grabs my
attention; bands like Gantz and Envy, for instance, whose roots are in the "screamo" sound but integrate the power and atmosphere of instrumental post-rock
and epic crustcore, and become something entirely different and inventive in the process. Take Cease Upon The Capital, for instance; these guys unleash a
torrent of fast thrashy hardcore and intense, soul-scorching breakdowns with powerful, throat-rending screamed vocals, and clad them in some of the most
epic, unstoppably catchy melodies I've ever heard, further flesh out their songs with quieter, intricate interludes informed by the early 90's
sounds of bands like Slint and Rodan, layer on all kinds of spacey electronic effects and delayed guitars, blazing riffs and drumming that switches
effortlessly between frantic pummel and complex rhythms, and build each of these songs into a massive crescendo of grindy, chaotic, metallic emo-prog-pop.
The band calls it "shoegaze-violence n' roll" on their Myspace page, and I'm not going to argue. This is by far one of the catchiest albums I've heard this
year, like a perfect combination of art-damaged, psychedelic hardcore, Envy, Neurosis, chaotic metalcore, haunting post-rock, and the catchiest indie/emo pop
band ever. I know that sounds like a lot of hype, but this album is so catchy, so fierce, and so freaking amazing, and the guitar playing, those riffs, those
hooks....it's just amazing. Definitely in my top 10 for 2006. Where in the fuck did these guys come from?
The package for this album is awesome too; a six-panel digipack with killer abtstract new wavey artwork, and a full color 24-page book enclosed in an
interior pocket.