A few days ago, I finished a massive video on the infamous Wulin Warriors. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:
Thursday, December 10, 2020
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Life With COVID-19 and Post-Election Thoughts
So on Election Day, two hours after I voted, I tested positive for Coronavirus. As a result, I am locked in my house so I don't give it to anyone else (given how contentious this election was, it was probably for the best that I wasn't outside anyway). Let me tell you, having this thing sucks. One night, before I knew anything was wrong, I woke up with cold sweats. For the next few nights, I hit a wall at like 8pm or so and was extremely fatigued. After that, I started feeling sore and was coughing and had a stuffy nose. After testing positive, I had different symptoms every day. I had terrible body aches that made me not want to move at all, I had a fever that went away soon after, then came back again and went away a second time, I had brain fog that severely impacted my ability to do work, and at one point my sinuses were so swollen, it hurt to breathe through my nose. I also can't taste anything that isn't salty, which fucking sucks. Despite all of this, I seriously think that the mental toll this virus took on me was worse than the physical. Early on, my mind was racing, wondering if I would die of the virus or get some sort of permanent organ damage. I'm very lucky I just had a minor case, though I'm still not fully recovered and operating at I would say 95%. My isolation ends Friday, but I'm still not leaving for a few more days just to be sure. No reason to risk infecting others. Thankfully I was able to Zoom in to my classes and not miss much, I'll just keep doing that. I will say Trump losing the election and the temper tantrums thrown by him and his supporters helped put me in a good mood during the worst of the virus. I am not a Joe Biden fan by any stretch of the imagination, but the country needs a better leader to guide it through this chaos. I have to say I am absolutely stunned that 71 million people looked at the events of last 4 years including all the scandals, the pandemic, the current economic depression, the divisiveness, the violence, and the lies and thought "yeah, I want more of that". I knew this dude was a charlatan and a con-artist from the beginning and it floors me that his supporters don't see that despite everything that has happened. Trump isn't even trying to be a populist anymore, he's run the worst political campaign I've ever seen in my life, and he STILL got 71 million votes! This country has some serious critical thinking issues. Fingers crossed Trump's coup attempt is a miserable failure and the impending ideological civil war in the Republican party destroys it from the inside.
Friday, April 10, 2020
Deleting My Terrible Teenage Short Story
So with the quarantine still in full swing, I'm finding new ways to pass the time. One thing I decided to do was read an old short story I wrote in the summer of 2012 when I was 14 years old. Like most things 14 year olds write, it sucked. It really, really sucked. As I got older I realized this and cringed whenever I thought about it. Upon finally rereading it in full nearly 8 years later as a 22 year old, I realized that not only was the story exceptionally bad, it was also an absolutely terrifying look into my mindset at that age. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's go back a bit.
Just so you, dear reader, have the necessary background information, I'm going to let you in on what was going on during my early teenage years. From ages 13 to 16, I was depressed. Upon entering middle school, I had zero self esteem and was painfully socially awkward. Seeing everyone else be a social butterfly (or at least have the appearance of being one) didn't help either. To make things worse, I was also relentlessly bullied by various people throughout this point in my life. Needless to say, I was very sad and angry and buried myself in music and video games to take my mind off of my situation. I decided to write a short story as a catharsis during the summer between 8th and 9th grade. For what it's worth, I do think it helped me a little bit but that doesn't change my current feelings on it. I'm not going to go into the full details of the plot because it's really gut-wrenching to even talk about, but I will say it was essentially a mystery story about a semi self-insert character who, while sleepwalking, exacts revenge on people who wronged him and goes on the run, slowing figuring out the details of what happened. It wasn't like a shooting or mass murder type thing, I wasn't that screwed up, but it did involve people being attacked. Now that I've set the scene, let's get into the story and why I'm ashamed of it.
Right off the bat, my main character gives this super pretentious and annoying "not like the other kids" spiel and that vibe carries throughout the whole story. I also for some reason felt the need to have characters representing pretty much everyone who was in my life at that point, even if they only appear once. All the characters in this story regularly get into violent fights for some reason, like excessive violence is just a part of everyday life in this town and no one really questions it. Come to think of it, I wrote just about every character to be a fucking lunatic. Some characters help the main character knowing he's a wanted murderer just because they were friends before or casually talk to him even though they just met him and know he's a fugitive. In addition to the sleepwalking attacks, the main character, while in control of himself, assaults by my count at least 7 people and even kills a few. Some of them are attacking him, so in those cases it's justified, but it's just so fucking dumb that this dude is just casually beating up and shooting people without a second thought. Also, nobody seems to have any sympathy for the victims of his crimes. Like, yeah, they were over the top assholes but they were still people. Even the main character, who involuntarily attacked them in his sleep, is like "yeah they all deserved it, so whatever" with others around him agreeing with him. While I'm on this, I'm going to talk about how I portrayed the bully characters because my God, this is so out there and extreme it makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Every bully character is pretty much an irredeemable human being with no positive qualities, acting comically evil and judgemental. The thing that finally sets the main character off is a super over the top prank that involves him being kidnapped, stripped naked by these characters, tied to a pole, videotaped, and that video being shown to hundreds of people. Also, the way the reveal of the video is done is very contrived and idiotic and would never happen in real life. There's also a scene that involves a fight between a gang and white supremacist group that the protagonist and his friends are caught in the middle of because both groups have a bone to pick with them, but they also both happen to find them at the house they're staying in at the same time for some reason. The guy who owns the house ends up pulling out a bunch of military grade shiny weapons and arms the whole group of friends which makes no fucking sense. Oh, by the way, that character happens to both be a psychologist with a ton of brain scanning technology in his basement but he's also a lawyer. Jesus Christ my head hurts just talking about this. I'll skip over a bunch of dumb shit and wrap it up: the main character turns himself in, goes to a wacky shack for 8 months, gets better, and continues his life like nothing happened, the end.
Okay, because talking about this clusterfuck of a story is driving me insane, I'll leave the details at that, I'm sure you get the picture. What I want to talk about now is how the story reminded me of who I was back then. I was honestly horrified. Since the plot is so incoherent, I was really reading this as a case study, a look into who I was at 14. I know I was not doing so well, like I said previously, but reading this story really showed me how hurt and angry I was back then. I was honestly a pretty miserable person and it showed through my writing. I remember sending this to a very helpful therapist who I was seeing on and off at the time due to my anxiety and depression. He's the only person other than me to ever see this work. I don't think he read the whole thing and I thank God for that because I would have probably been seeing him until the cows came home. I know he printed it out and that remains the only physical copy of this to ever exist. It's probably tucked away in a file somewhere or thrown out. There was a silver lining to this experience, however. Rereading this showed how much I've grown since I was 14 and I'm proud of what that angry, sad kid grew into. But, like I said, reading this was painful. That's why I deleted the story after I finished reading. Honestly, that felt pretty cathartic as well, deleting something born from adolescent anger and sadness. It kind of symbolizes that I'm not that person anymore. Most of those emotions I felt as a teenager are gone. Many of the people I once held absolute contempt for, I no longer really think about. Many of the things I thought were super important at that age ended up not mattering. The leftover feelings I have from that time in my life I use as motivation to improve and work hard in school and my career. I want the people who treated me poorly in high school to hear my name again one day when I accomplish something. I hope they've grown up a bit at that point and they're happy to see I'm doing well. It's like Frank Sinatra said: "The best revenge is massive success." I regret having a shitty adolescence, but I'm thankful that I've had a pretty great young adulthood so far. Here's hoping that continues.
Just so you, dear reader, have the necessary background information, I'm going to let you in on what was going on during my early teenage years. From ages 13 to 16, I was depressed. Upon entering middle school, I had zero self esteem and was painfully socially awkward. Seeing everyone else be a social butterfly (or at least have the appearance of being one) didn't help either. To make things worse, I was also relentlessly bullied by various people throughout this point in my life. Needless to say, I was very sad and angry and buried myself in music and video games to take my mind off of my situation. I decided to write a short story as a catharsis during the summer between 8th and 9th grade. For what it's worth, I do think it helped me a little bit but that doesn't change my current feelings on it. I'm not going to go into the full details of the plot because it's really gut-wrenching to even talk about, but I will say it was essentially a mystery story about a semi self-insert character who, while sleepwalking, exacts revenge on people who wronged him and goes on the run, slowing figuring out the details of what happened. It wasn't like a shooting or mass murder type thing, I wasn't that screwed up, but it did involve people being attacked. Now that I've set the scene, let's get into the story and why I'm ashamed of it.
Right off the bat, my main character gives this super pretentious and annoying "not like the other kids" spiel and that vibe carries throughout the whole story. I also for some reason felt the need to have characters representing pretty much everyone who was in my life at that point, even if they only appear once. All the characters in this story regularly get into violent fights for some reason, like excessive violence is just a part of everyday life in this town and no one really questions it. Come to think of it, I wrote just about every character to be a fucking lunatic. Some characters help the main character knowing he's a wanted murderer just because they were friends before or casually talk to him even though they just met him and know he's a fugitive. In addition to the sleepwalking attacks, the main character, while in control of himself, assaults by my count at least 7 people and even kills a few. Some of them are attacking him, so in those cases it's justified, but it's just so fucking dumb that this dude is just casually beating up and shooting people without a second thought. Also, nobody seems to have any sympathy for the victims of his crimes. Like, yeah, they were over the top assholes but they were still people. Even the main character, who involuntarily attacked them in his sleep, is like "yeah they all deserved it, so whatever" with others around him agreeing with him. While I'm on this, I'm going to talk about how I portrayed the bully characters because my God, this is so out there and extreme it makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Every bully character is pretty much an irredeemable human being with no positive qualities, acting comically evil and judgemental. The thing that finally sets the main character off is a super over the top prank that involves him being kidnapped, stripped naked by these characters, tied to a pole, videotaped, and that video being shown to hundreds of people. Also, the way the reveal of the video is done is very contrived and idiotic and would never happen in real life. There's also a scene that involves a fight between a gang and white supremacist group that the protagonist and his friends are caught in the middle of because both groups have a bone to pick with them, but they also both happen to find them at the house they're staying in at the same time for some reason. The guy who owns the house ends up pulling out a bunch of military grade shiny weapons and arms the whole group of friends which makes no fucking sense. Oh, by the way, that character happens to both be a psychologist with a ton of brain scanning technology in his basement but he's also a lawyer. Jesus Christ my head hurts just talking about this. I'll skip over a bunch of dumb shit and wrap it up: the main character turns himself in, goes to a wacky shack for 8 months, gets better, and continues his life like nothing happened, the end.
Okay, because talking about this clusterfuck of a story is driving me insane, I'll leave the details at that, I'm sure you get the picture. What I want to talk about now is how the story reminded me of who I was back then. I was honestly horrified. Since the plot is so incoherent, I was really reading this as a case study, a look into who I was at 14. I know I was not doing so well, like I said previously, but reading this story really showed me how hurt and angry I was back then. I was honestly a pretty miserable person and it showed through my writing. I remember sending this to a very helpful therapist who I was seeing on and off at the time due to my anxiety and depression. He's the only person other than me to ever see this work. I don't think he read the whole thing and I thank God for that because I would have probably been seeing him until the cows came home. I know he printed it out and that remains the only physical copy of this to ever exist. It's probably tucked away in a file somewhere or thrown out. There was a silver lining to this experience, however. Rereading this showed how much I've grown since I was 14 and I'm proud of what that angry, sad kid grew into. But, like I said, reading this was painful. That's why I deleted the story after I finished reading. Honestly, that felt pretty cathartic as well, deleting something born from adolescent anger and sadness. It kind of symbolizes that I'm not that person anymore. Most of those emotions I felt as a teenager are gone. Many of the people I once held absolute contempt for, I no longer really think about. Many of the things I thought were super important at that age ended up not mattering. The leftover feelings I have from that time in my life I use as motivation to improve and work hard in school and my career. I want the people who treated me poorly in high school to hear my name again one day when I accomplish something. I hope they've grown up a bit at that point and they're happy to see I'm doing well. It's like Frank Sinatra said: "The best revenge is massive success." I regret having a shitty adolescence, but I'm thankful that I've had a pretty great young adulthood so far. Here's hoping that continues.
Monday, March 16, 2020
A Rant on Coronavirus and Selfish Morons
So at the time of this writing, the Coronavirus pandemic is shutting down the country and causing widespread panic and confusion. I have not left my neighborhood in a week and it looks like I'm going to be stuck here for the foreseeable future. After getting home from school last Monday, I received word from the University President that due to a student group attending an out of state conference that had a confirmed case of coronavirus (some internet sleuthing revealed to me that it was the local College Republicans chapter and CPAC because of fucking course it was), the University would be shutting down until at least March 25th. I'm technically on Spring Break right now and the 25th is still the tentative opening date, but with how bad things are getting, I don't see us going back anytime soon. I may very well spend the rest of my last semester of undergrad taking online classes and possibly won't have a graduation ceremony if things don't improve. I wanted to go see Ringworm and All Out War in New Haven on Sunday, but the show, along with pretty much every other one for the next month, was understandably cancelled due to everything that has been going on. Good thing I can keep myself busy with the research papers I need to write, music, YouTube videos, and video games. I actually pre-ordered Doom Eternal, which comes out in 4 days so I'll be riding this thing out in style. Looks like being an introverted autistic dude is finally paying off!
I have to say though, this is a really shitty time for a viral pandemic. Not only is it my senior year of college, which means I can't be on campus doing things with my friends and participating in things I'm involved with, it's coincidentally the Centennial for the University of New Haven. What are the odds that during my graduation year, which is also the 100th anniversary of my university, there would be a worldwide viral outbreak that would essentially ruin everything? Also, like I said before, this pandemic means I can't go to shows, which really sucks. Funny thing is if this happened when I was like 16, I probably would've been thrilled. I would've said something like "You mean I can just stay home and play video games for two months straight without having to go to school or speak to anyone? Fuck yeah!" But of course, now that I'm not a total shut in and want to go out and do things, the Chinese Death Virus picks now to make life as we know it grind to a halt.
On a more serious note, I seriously can't stand these fucking morons going out and partying in places packed with hundreds if not thousands of people when there is a virus rapidly spreading across the globe. On social media, I've been seeing people in packed bars, beaches, clubs, you name it. I guarantee a ton of these people got the virus and are spreading it right now because they don't realize they have it. They're actually starting to shut restaurants and bars down because of it. What choice do they have? These people think they're invincible. They look at the number of confirmed cases and think "Psshh, this isn't a big deal", not realizing that the actual cases of the virus are way, way higher than the confirmed cases because there still aren't enough tests going around and there are God knows how many people with the virus who aren't symptomatic yet. They don't realize that even if they get the virus and are fine, they may spread it to high risk individuals they live with, endangering their lives. This is exactly what happened in Italy and the whole damn country was put on lockdown because of it. I fear that in a week or two, this thing is going to get real bad just like it did over there. We had 89 confirmed cases on March 1st. Now, on the 16th, we have 3,487. I dread to think what's going to happen to those numbers once all the Spring Break partiers are back home. Italy's hospitals were totally overwhelmed and hospital staff started getting sick and spreading the virus to their families. And the scary thing is their healthcare system is better than ours! So if the same thing happens here, and it looks like it might, we're totally fucked. Oh and lastly, bravo to our moron President for disbanding the Pandemic Response Team in 2018. This probably wouldn't have been this much of an issue if they weren't let go. Now, thanks to the virus and the oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, the economic bubble popped and the stock market is in free-fall and we're probably going to slip into a recession again. Just in time for my college graduation. Yippee.
I have to say though, this is a really shitty time for a viral pandemic. Not only is it my senior year of college, which means I can't be on campus doing things with my friends and participating in things I'm involved with, it's coincidentally the Centennial for the University of New Haven. What are the odds that during my graduation year, which is also the 100th anniversary of my university, there would be a worldwide viral outbreak that would essentially ruin everything? Also, like I said before, this pandemic means I can't go to shows, which really sucks. Funny thing is if this happened when I was like 16, I probably would've been thrilled. I would've said something like "You mean I can just stay home and play video games for two months straight without having to go to school or speak to anyone? Fuck yeah!" But of course, now that I'm not a total shut in and want to go out and do things, the Chinese Death Virus picks now to make life as we know it grind to a halt.
On a more serious note, I seriously can't stand these fucking morons going out and partying in places packed with hundreds if not thousands of people when there is a virus rapidly spreading across the globe. On social media, I've been seeing people in packed bars, beaches, clubs, you name it. I guarantee a ton of these people got the virus and are spreading it right now because they don't realize they have it. They're actually starting to shut restaurants and bars down because of it. What choice do they have? These people think they're invincible. They look at the number of confirmed cases and think "Psshh, this isn't a big deal", not realizing that the actual cases of the virus are way, way higher than the confirmed cases because there still aren't enough tests going around and there are God knows how many people with the virus who aren't symptomatic yet. They don't realize that even if they get the virus and are fine, they may spread it to high risk individuals they live with, endangering their lives. This is exactly what happened in Italy and the whole damn country was put on lockdown because of it. I fear that in a week or two, this thing is going to get real bad just like it did over there. We had 89 confirmed cases on March 1st. Now, on the 16th, we have 3,487. I dread to think what's going to happen to those numbers once all the Spring Break partiers are back home. Italy's hospitals were totally overwhelmed and hospital staff started getting sick and spreading the virus to their families. And the scary thing is their healthcare system is better than ours! So if the same thing happens here, and it looks like it might, we're totally fucked. Oh and lastly, bravo to our moron President for disbanding the Pandemic Response Team in 2018. This probably wouldn't have been this much of an issue if they weren't let go. Now, thanks to the virus and the oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia, the economic bubble popped and the stock market is in free-fall and we're probably going to slip into a recession again. Just in time for my college graduation. Yippee.
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Connecticut Hardcore
Editors Note 1/15/20: This was also posted on Metal Amino. That version has links to the actual videos while this just has pictures of the thumbnails with links below them because Blogger is being annoying for some reason.
What’s up y’all? Today I want to talk about something
I’m really passionate about. Here’s a little bit of background: I didn’t
go out to shows of any kind as a teenager. Let’s just say those years
were not very good to me and leave it at that. I did start going out
last year and have been a regular show-goer since, however. The thing is
a lot of local metal bands in Connecticut aren’t that good. A large portion of
them are just shitkicker dad metal that I’m really not into. Though
there are some great metal bands here (I may make a blog about them
later), there aren’t enough in my area to get me to go out to many local
metal shows. However, I am also an avid hardcore fan and discovered
that Connecticut has a very healthy and growing hardcore scene. I’ve
been a fan of the classic bands of CTHC since I was in my early teens,
but in recent years the scene has been experiencing a resurgence and I
found myself right in the middle of it. So today, I’m going to talk
about some great CTHC bands, old and new, that I feel deserve your
attention.
#NMW
#NMWednesday
Old Bands
100 Demons
Let’s kick things off with one of my personal favorites
in the Connecticut hardcore scene:
100 Demons. Despite being active for more than 20 years, 100 Demons only
have two full lengths in their catalogue that any metalcore fan should
hear. Their debut, In The Eyes Of The Lord, released on Good Fight in
2000, is a metalcore classic and one of my most listened to records. I
first heard this record when I was like 15 and the band’s punishingly
heavy take on hardcore along with the passionate and angry performance
of vocalist Bruce LePage blew me away. Their self-titled record with new
vocalist Pete Morcey was released on Deathwish in 2004 and has a very
Deathwishy sound if you know what I mean. It’s not on the level of their
first but is still leagues above most modern metalcore IMO. Fans of
Merauder and All Out War should find plenty to love about this group.
Death Threat
Originally founded in 1997 by ex-members of Hatebreed,
Death Threat quickly made a name for themselves in the late 90s. The
band utilizes a metallic guitar tone somewhat similar to Hatebreed but
uses a song structure more akin to traditional hardcore and employs some
very unique and different sounding vocals. Unlike Demons, DT have a
decent number of releases to listen to: 4 full lengths and some EPs and
splits. I actually got to see these guys back in November at the 20th
Anniversary show for their debut Last Dayz with the original lineup and
their set was absolutely nuts. It was really something else seeing
people well over a decade my senior mosh like 20-year-olds when DT took
the stage.
Die My Will
Allow me to introduce you to Die My Will, another one of
my favorite CTHC groups and quite possibly one of the most underrated
metalcore bands of all time. The band was active in the mid to late 90s
and played some of the most chaotic, violent, and
mercilessly heavy metalcore of their time. Their output in their short
life
span amounts to two full lengths (if you could call them that), a 7”,
and a split with Piecemeal. For the past 20 years, a rumor has been
going around that says they signed with Equal Vision records and
secretly recorded a full length for the label before they abruptly broke
up in 1999, but nothing had surfaced as of 2019. Though the band has
been mostly forgotten outside of Connecticut, they are adored by many
older hardcore fans and musicians who are still involved in the music.
Apparently, their live shows were fucking insane and left those seeing
them for the first time in awe, but I haven’t been able to find any
footage of them performing. They were also said by many to be some of
the nicest dudes in the scene. If you’re a fan of bands like Turmoil or
Buried Alive then you need to get on this, like now.
Wide Awake
Wide Awake
were a straight edge youth crew band, active in the late 80s. There
isn’t much info out there on the band, but I can tell you that even now, roughly 30 years after their breakup, they are still a local favorite,
especially among Connecticut’s straight edge crowd. Their 25-song
discography is up on Spotify, so definitely give them a listen if you
like Youth of Today.
Hatebreed
You can’t discuss the history of Connecticut Hardcore
without mentioning Hatebreed. Today, Hatebreed are one of the most
well-known metalcore bands in the world, touring internationally on a
regular basis and drawing huge crowds wherever they go. What is less
known about the band is that they got their start in Connecticut’s
hardcore scene. Hatebreed, formed in 1994, were one of the earliest
bands to blend metal and hardcore. They were also among the first
metalcore bands to rise to prominence through their 1996 EP Under the
Knife and 1997 full length Satisfaction is the Death of Desire. The
latter released on Victory Records which, at the time, was home to some
of the biggest bands in hardcore. Even today, Satisfaction is still
considered one of the best, if not the best, release to come out of
Connecticut by those in the scene. Hatebreed’s rise caused a notable
stylistic shift in Connecticut’s hardcore scene. In the 1980s and early
1990s, many of the bands that came out of Connecticut such as Wide Awake
and Cornerstone had a fast youth crew style sound influenced by CT
legends Youth of Today. In the late 1990s however, this changed as most
newer bands in the scene like Death Threat, 100 Demons, and Groundzero
played a heavier, more metallic style. This affinity for metalcore
persisted in Connecticut until the mid-00s. By that point, most of the
old guard had broken up and were replaced by more melodic bands like
Ambitions, With Honor, and Hostage Calm. The heavy sound made a comeback
in the 10s when most of the older bands got back together and a new
crop of heavy bands like Enraged Youth and Laid 2 Rest sprang up. Even
though the scene today has a great deal of variety, heavy hardcore and
metalcore acts like Cast In Blood, Laid 2 Rest, and Steel Grave still
make up a large portion of current bands. Over the ensuing decades,
Hatebreed were able to transcend the hardcore scene and become a
mainstay in the national metal scene without changing their look or
their sound.
New Bands
Intercourse
Fans of wierdo hardcore rejoice because Intercourse are
up there with the best of them! These guys play a bizarre, spazzy, and
chaotic style of punk that’s hard to describe. I would say it’s like a
mix of post-hardcore, noise, and a touch of mathcore but this is really a
band you need to hear for yourself. My friend Dan Romeo knows much more
about these guys than I do since he is pretty close with them so if you
want to know more, read his excellent interview with the band here.
Cast In Blood
If you’re seeking something different when it comes to
metalcore, look no further than Cast In Blood. This band plays very
heavy metalcore with a melodic twist, featuring very good clean vocals
mixed in with typical metalcore yells from frontman and longtime CTHC
veteran Ryan Patrick White of Jagged Visions, Murmur, SYITHAEYFO, and
numerous other bands (who may I add has been going to shows longer than I
have been alive). The band also notably includes Rick Brayall of 100
Demons on guitar and his son Ricky on drums. Don’t let my
description fool you, this isn’t quite At The Gates-core type stuff as
it draws more from hardcore than melodic death metal. Cast in Blood
recently released a split with Foreign Hands and seem to be gaining some
regional popularity, so I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next for
the band.
Restraining Order
Fuck,
this band is awesome. Restraining Order, hailing from CT and Western
Mass, are the local
torchbearers for the classic hardcore sound. If you aren’t into anything
metallic or weird and just want some straightforward, no bullshit, UK82
style hardcore punk, this band is for you. I saw them at Anxious’ EP
release show in November and the place fucking exploded when they
started playing. Oldheads love this band, young kids love this band,
they just fucking rule. Definitely check them out if you like bands
similar to The Rival Mob.
Lift
Formed in 2015, Lift are bringing the 90s back in the
best way possible. Consisting of former members of With Honor and
Ambitions, the group forgoes the predominantly melodic sound of the
aforementioned bands in favor of an intense but eclectic sound strongly
influenced by Snapcase and The Hope Conspiracy. With two EPs under their
belt, the band is currently working on a full length due out later this
year, and I for one can’t wait.
Anxious
If you’re in touch with the current hardcore scene,
you’ve probably heard of Anxious at some point. The band started out in
late 2015, when three high school kids from Southern Connecticut decided
that they wanted to play in a punk band. Over the last few years,
Anxious have built up a loyal and dedicated fanbase in Connecticut. With
their signing to Triple B Records early this year, Anxious were exposed
to a much wider audience and gained a large following throughout the
country. Their music isn’t hardcore in the traditional sense as they
play emotive post-hardcore in the vein of bands like Title Fight, but
make no mistake: these are true hardcore kids who really give a shit
about HC of all styles and bringing new people to shows in Connecticut. A
few months ago, the band switched to a five-piece, adding new drummer
Jonny Camner, moving former drummer Dante Melucci to guitar, and adding
Ryan Savitsky from One Step Closer as a second guitarist while keeping
bassist Sam Walter at his current role. These additions freed up
vocalist Grady Allen to be a true frontman instead of a guitarist and
vocalist. I was at the band’s EP release show on November 30th and
switching to a five-piece was a great move on their part. Grady’s a
fantastic frontman who oozes charisma and confidence. The kid was born
to be on stage. You can watch their set from that night on YouTube
(where you can also see the stage diver who fucking DELETED me at
10:40-10:45, though I am out of frame unfortunately). On a personal
level, I haven’t met Ryan or Sam yet and have only briefly spoken with
Dante once, but I know Jonny and have talked with Grady multiple times
and I only have good things to say about them. Funny story: I bought one
of the show exclusive 7-inch vinyls of Never Better at the release
show, but I don’t have a car so I couldn’t put it anywhere. Grady
actually hid my record for me under a bunch of merch until the end of
the show. It really cool to see him go out of his way to do that for me.
Watch out for these guys, I promise you haven’t heard the last from
them.
Now I’m going to briefly talk about one more Connecticut
band that has had a massive impact on the hardcore scene and me
personally. The last band I’m talking about
in detail will be Enraged Youth who formed at some point in 2013. I
discovered this band in 2014 when I was 16 years old. I found their
debut full length on some Russian hardcore blog and absolutely loved it.
The fact that they were a Connecticut band was just a bonus for me.
Now, the cool thing about this band is that the guys in it were mostly
either my age or a year older yet they were making some of the hardest
music in the state. This was the band that made me realize that
Connecticut Hardcore was still a thing. The ironic thing was before they
formed, it really wasn’t, according to what one of the ex-members told
me. Them and a couple other bands really got the ball rolling and
contributed to the state of the scene today. Enraged Youth existed for a
couple years and broke up around 2016. After the breakup, the group
splintered into a bunch of other bands. Guitarist Justin would join Laid
2 Rest and form a band called Hatred Remains, Bassist Tyler and
Guitarist Ricky would go on to form the (fucking awesome) death metal
band Vomit Forth, currently signed to Maggot Stomp. Ricky also plays
drums in Cast In Blood with his father Rick of 100 Demons fame. Initial
bassist and later vocalist Jon currently plays bass in a little band
called Vein. I met Tyler and Ricky when I saw Vomit Forth in November
and
they were both super cool dudes. I later met Jon and Justin at a show in
New
Haven in early December and they both seem like great guys as well.
Enraged Youth may not be well known at large but the impact the old
members are having is
immense and it’s really cool to see these guys find success.
Of course, there are so many other bands I could talk
about here but I can’t make this blog a thesis, so I’ll list a few more
bands past and present you should check
out depending on your tastes:
Beatdown: Laid 2 Rest, Fight Night, Dead Wrong, Steel Grave.
Metalcore: Jagged Visions, Groundzero, Deadeyesunder, Drowning Room, Sum of All Fears, God Program.
Melodic Hardcore: Voice of Reason, Ambitions, With Honor.
“Hardcore” Hardcore: Follow Through, Signs of Hope, Cornerstone, Zero Hour, Tenfold, Dismay (FFO Burn especially).
Powerviolence: Kidnapped.
Also be on the lookout for new bands Ill Communication and Last Straw. Both bands are releasing demos soon.
I’ll also be linking a CTHC Spotify playlist compiled
by Jay Reason of Voice of Reason and The Distance that has pretty much
every band I talked about and many more. Thanks for reading and I hope
you enjoyed!
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