Veils // Clarity

Hardcore is a tricky genre these days. The way I see it, is that there are typically two schools of thought on the genre. There are die-hard skate punks that cling to the genre’s past and relive it through their raw, spastic music. More heinously however, is the other school that is largely a cesspool of regurgitated ideas that act as little more than an excuse for breakdown after chugging breakdown. There are kids that will blindly accept music that is nothing more than this just so that they can throw down. While there is nothing inherently wrong with this, it has gotten unforgivably stale.

So I was pleasantly surprised when I heard Clarity the newest EP from UK hardcore band Veils. At first listen this EP has the best of both worlds. Their production style is so polished, you feel it in your chest when the bass drum hits, and the guitars sound so clean that it smacks of current hardcore trends. However, their songwriting is inherently old school. Tracks like “Caves (Anxiety)” have the signature rapid fire snare hits and the borderline shouted/screamed vocals. The passion is right there on the surface and it’s felt on a visceral level. It’s such a breath of fresh air how Veils brings the past and the present together and it blows my mind that the band is less than a year old.

You can stream or buy Clarity on their bandcamp page. The EP is also out on vinyl through Tangled Talk Records. You might end up stretching your funds a bit if you’re going international, but this thing is definitely worth it.

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BANDCAMP | TUMBLR | FACEBOOK | TWITTER

 

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Guilty Ghosts // “Tinted Windows” (feat. Guerre)

I saw this track posted on Boy Attractions (one of my favorite blogs) yesterday but I didn’t get a chance to listen to it. Then today I was reminded of it when Guilty Ghosts (Tristan O’Donnell) actually sent it to me. There was no excuse to pass over it a second time, so I listened to it and was really kinda blown away. 

I had heard Guilty Ghosts in the past, so I was familiar with Tristan’s music. It always seemed to float in through the window like a whisper lost in the white noise. This new track of his cleans up his fuzzy head noise a bit, and adds an element of pure genius: vocals by Guerre. I’ve had the privilege of including Guerre on two of my mixtape collabs with Unholy Rhythms, and I’ve absolutely fallen in love his whispered falsetto. He has this eerie disembodied quality to his voice that lends itself perfectly to this Guilty Ghosts track. Dream team, man.

I’m telling you, keep your eye on Guilty Ghosts. His debut full-length, Veils, drops sometime this summer. Gimme gimme.

“Tinted Windows” (feat. Guerre)

 

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