Candle was pre - Antioch Arrow and Clikitat Ikatowi. I think this 7" is a good example of the things that '90s emo bands did right. Two driving songs that remind me of Grain or Amber Inn or maybe even Breakwater at times. Lots of good energy and just the right amount of teenage incompetence.
I wasn't really planning on putting this up here, but the June Paik song is the best hardcore song I've heard all year. I thought they were really spinning their wheels on the last 10" but the new new track is a beast! This is still in print and available from React With Protest, Adagio 830 and the wonderful IFB Distro among others. Go fetch.
Life At Theses Speeds were part of that spate of indie-influenced punk bands running around in the early-mid 2000s (Sinaloa, Stop It, Malady etc etc) and were criminally underrated. I think their discography should be state-issued to anybody thinking about starting an indie rock band. "See? You can do it and still have guts!" This is their first full length and the delivery is a little more aggressive than on subsequent outings, but the end product is great as always.
I've posted some other Resurrectionists stuff, why not this? Resurrectionists give us their tightest and most brutal output to date; fantastic. On the flip side, BOW359 continue on their quest to become Welcome the Plague Year 2.0. This is probably their best stuff yet, but I'm not convinced that I'll ever hold them to be a really great band.
I decided to revisit this recently after a number of years, expecting it to sound terrible. Much to my surprise it's aged pretty well. This band wanted to be One Eye God Prophecy sooooo badly, which is a sentiment that I condone and encourage. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Magic Bullet still had copies left. If they do, scoop one and help support Brent Eyestone's expensive football card habit.
Behind Closed Doors were part of the whole Moss Icon - Universal Order of Armageddon - Convocation Of... lineage. Pretty sure they shared members with some or all of those bands, can't remember for sure. They released this one-sided LP on Vermiform and then disappeared forever. It's quite an excellent slab, firmly in the vein of the above-mentioned bands but with an extra dose of Botch-like aggression. Recommended!
This LP came out on React With Protest some months ago to little or no fanfare, but I like it a lot. Dolcim has a couple of ex - Cease Upon the Capitol guys and continues where that band left off; driving drums, effect-laden guitars, really solid hardcore in the June Paik / early Envy vein. Shame about the silly song titles, but whatever...
