Tag Archives: Mathcore

Introducing… False Flags

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False Flags 2015

With their debut mini-album on the horizon, Yorkshire UK discordant hardcore newbies False Flags have made available the excellent preview track, ‘Last Screen Goddess’ that turned heads at Ghost Cult towers. Vocalist Chris Jenkinson helped us piece the puzzle of the band together…

 You all know each other from various bands (Red Stars Parade, Whores x 3, Year Of The Man) from a couple of years ago, so how did things come together, and considering you’ve had a break, why now?
We all met through playing gigs together in our old bands back in 2005ish. After all the bands split up, Charlie told me that he, Mark and our old drummer Kev were jamming some new material and I, being quite drunk at the time, said I would be up for doing vocals. The day after, I couldn’t remember saying that at all!

But I still joined anyway. 

A year or so of writing and playing the occasional show, Kev left the band so we met Mike through advertising for a new drummer. We’re all in our mid 30’s now, so I think we just do this to get out of the house and hang out.

You’re self-releasing your mini-album. What does “DIY” mean to you?
DIY, to me, is just cutting out all the bullshit and stress that we’ve had in the past with regards to putting the mini-album out. It’s just so easy to put it out ourselves these days rather than trying to get a label to do it.

Speaking of which, Hexmachine is out on 20th November. What can people expect who don’t know about you?
It’s a pretty heavy, straight to the point record from start to finish but you can tell that there’s a structure to it. Rather than most math/hardcore records being all out nuts, we’ve kept it so you can follow what’s going on so its a tad more palatable. I think it’s an age thing really.

You’ve made lead-off track, ‘Last Screen Goddess’, available. Tell us about it, and what do you think it brings that maybe others don’t?
It’s one of the last tracks that we wrote for the record and it kind of just wrote itself. The name came from a headline in the newspaper when Elizabeth Taylor died so I wrote the lyrics about a fictitious character and what they would do to become a famous film star. 

It’s pretty much a verse, chorus, verse tune which I don’t think many bands are doing in the DIY scene these days.

What bands do you relate to, and are there any in particular in mind when you’re looking in terms of what you want to emulate?
We’re still fans of the bands that we listened to when we were kids. Pixies, Nirvana, Deftones etc, so when it comes to writing I try to use the same dynamics with a cleaner vocal for the verses and then scream the “chorus”, but then put that into a hardcore band. I remember going to see The Chariot years ago and thinking, that’s the type of band I want to be in, so we bring that dynamic to the table too! Structured chaos!

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What’s the deal with the lyrics… Is it true you’re a bit random with them? Are you not worried about not connecting, or are the words just a means to an end? Or is it just trying to do something a bit different and not just bro-downing?
The lyrics are kind of weird really. Each song has a theme but they’re not really about anything in particular. Most of the time we come up with the title first, then I try to write around that. Charlie came in one day and said “Can we call a song ‘Pet Wolf’?” So that ended up being about one of my Chihuahuas being a little shit! 

I’m a big fan of lyricists like Cedric Bixler (The Mars Volta) and John Congleton (The Paperchase) so I try to do that “interpret it how you like” kind of thing.

How’s it all fit together with your every day lives? What you guys up to outside of the band?
I have a Mrs, 3 kids, a mortgage and work 6 days a week, so for me this is just a hobby that I love doing and it’s the best way for me to still hang out with old friends. The older you get, you tend to drift away from your mates with settling down and stuff, so it’s cool that my partner still lets me go out and pretend to be in my 20s and fuck about in a band!

 

Hexmachine is out on November 20. You can pre-order here.

 

WORDS BY STEVE TOVEY


Employed To Serve – Greyer Than You Remember

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Whilst all the talk around ‘Technical’ Hardcore may well be surrounding Palm Reader at the moment, and deservedly so, don’t let that stop you exploring other releases of the same ilk. Delivering that violently erratic smash-mouth style a la The Dillinger Escape Plan, Employed To Serve’s breed of music will hit you square between the eyes right from the word go.

The opening few tracks pretty much set the tone for the rest of the album – the band doing their upmost to not go down a path whereby you can predict what comes next. They’ve shunned the idea of a ‘normal’ song structure and instead launch through complicated arrangements, and mind bending riffs. A lot of the time, this level of description ends up putting people off checking this kind of music out, and like many of the bands playing a similar style will attest to, it can take time to get in to it. If you take the time around an album like this you will feel rewarded and some of these tracks won’t just become fodder to skip through on shuffle. Alongside the Dillinger type vibes on this album, there is an all round sense of bleakness, something made instantly plain by the track names, ‘Watching Films To Forget I Exist’ and ‘Greyer Than You Remember’ serving as clear examples. The absolute star of the show across the album is vocalist Justine Jones who delivers a performance containing so much venom you get a genuine sense that had she not been involved it would have been a lesser album as a result.

Overall then, this is some seriously high quality Hardcore music, whether you want to throw them into the Technical Hardcore bracket or Post Hardcore, it doesn’t matter – Greyer Than You Remember (Holy Roar) genuinely an exciting album which will hopefully hoist Employed To Serve on to more of people’s radars.

 

8.5/10

Employed To Serve on Facebook

 

TOM DONNO


Antigama – The Insolent

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Hailing from Poland, Antigama are an absolute wrecking ball. Their breed of Grindcore is relentless, and has been since their inception way back in 2000. Now with the release of The Insolent (Selfmadegod) they’re looking to launch another assault within the scene.

The make-up of the band has certainly been very tumultuous since 2000, with only two of the four in the band still original members, but it doesn’t seem to have affected the tightness and fury in the music as formula wise this is very similar to their previous output. They’ve got a system and they pretty much stick to it – a series of short, punchy and breathless tracks.

What makes Antigama a bit more interesting than some of the others in the Grindcore scene is the fact that they’ve clearly got other avenues of influence which they’re keen to explore. Some of the tracks display an erratic series of time signatures and an all around neurotic level of chaos, with influence possibly coming from the Math-y side of heavy music.

This is most clear in the tracks ‘Used To’ and ‘Foul Play’ which both smash by in less than three minutes. Frankly though as the album progresses it all becomes a bit tiresome. Each track feels like they’ve been melded in to one, so unless you’re actually looking at whatever device you’re listening from, you’ll struggle to pick up on track changes. That is until we reach ‘The Land Of Monotony’, the final track on the album. Ironically you’ll feel that your experience getting through the album has become rather monotonous when this track hits, but this seven minute song showcases what exactly the band are capable of if they move away from their standard formula. The track is atmospheric, heavy and chaotic all at the same time and only leaves you wondering why there isn’t more of the same across the album. As good as they are at thrashing their instruments into oblivion; this song alone shows that there could be so much more to this band.

Overall then, a lot of this album is largely forgettable. If you obsess over a good blast beat and chaotic two minute tracks, then you’ll absolutely love this but with this being a seventh studio album the fact that there are only glimpses of different and exciting things being explored is a bit of a shame.

 

6.5/10

Antigama on Facebook

 

TOM DONNO