Continents - 2012 - .​.​.​And Silence Anchored Our Feet In Granite

Continents is a 5 piece band from Dresden, Saxony, Germany. On their sophomore EP .​.​.​And Silence Anchored Our Feet In Granite Continents plays a straight ahead brand of post-hardcore and screamo, only slightly slowing down for some spoken word. Continents is made up of Simon, Dominic, Flo, Tobi and Kris. Together on their sophomore EP, they meld together post-hardcore and screamo influences, and manage to do some spoken word without having to dip into post-rock territory. 

The album starts off innocuously enough with the instrumental Adrift, immediately followed by the To You, A Thought which has the longest spoken word piece on the whole EP. I am glad that they stay out of the post-rock territory behind the spoken word parts, makes the whole song more interesting. The vocalist has multiple styles, going from spoken word, to an impassioned yet sad shout all the way up to a higher pitch shout to accent forward motion. The guitars transition nicely between  kicking up distortion and noise and actually providing some moments of melody. It's all over too quickly, Continents makes a clear statement, one that I want to hear more of.   It has been released on 10" transparent vinyl by Pike Records and Flood.

Mahria

Mahria are a four piece band from Edmonton, Calgary, Alberta. They play an awesome straight ahead brand of screamo. Lots of emotive screams from frontwoman Colby Burnett and a noisy yet melodic double guitar attack courtesy of Lealand and Mike and the solid rhythm section blasts everything into place. There is quite a scene going in Edmonton and Calgary right now, Todos Caeran, Book Of Caverns, Coalspur, Brain Fever and Gnats are the ones I know of.

Mahria is no exception in this list of awesome screamo bands. They play a hard hitting, noisy, somewhat abrasive but not chaotic brand of screamo. Their debut was a split EP with Todos Caeran and while the songs are good the production value is not the greatest. The best place to start with is their debut self-titled LP. The whole album is really solid and the production problems from their first release have been completely fixed. Standout tracks include Ghost Limb, Instrumental and Lights, a video for which appears above.

Their most current release is a split EP with Watcher, a screamo band from Victoria, British Colombia Canada. It is being released by Clue #2 records, the same label is putting out Book Of Caverns new LP Homes as well. It basically continues the sound Mahria has laid over their past releases, melodic guitars slice through noise and Colby screams her head off, even through a rare moment of calm, while Watcher's songs are much more obviously hardcore influenced, they have a more churning, powerful bottom end and their singer has a deeper shout. You can purchase it here

Araby - 2012 - alone.

Araby is a two piece band Grimbsy & Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Araby play a very noisy brand of screamo. With just the two piece they manage to make quite the noise. On their debut LP alone. they come blasting out of the gate and never let up. The singer has a nice high shriek that he usese's liberally, and I quite enjoy how full a sound they get as just the two pieces


.

The drums have a hard hitting quality, churning up the ground beneath you as the music slows down or falls apart. The guitars on this album walk a line between sweet riffs and moments of noise and chaos. The album is definitely more front loaded with a more introspective second half but it ends on a rather strong note.

shameless self promotion

SMAWJ is a singer/songwriter from Peterborough Ontario. SMAWJ is me, Scott McKee Arncliffe Wannan-Johnston. I have been writing songs and playing guitar for coming up on 6 years now. I write and play on a yamaha acoustic guitar, occupying a weird space. The songs I write are too angry and fast to be purely folk music but also too sad and acoustic to be truly punk, it's a weird border to be on. This year I released two EP's, The Substandard Wish Club and Time Is Stuck, both available for free.

Both these albums are and will always be available online for free  but if you are interested in purchasing either of these albums on cassette tapes, you can do that now!

You can check out my merch page here http://smawj.bandcamp.com/merch. Or just download the music for free and make your own physical copies.

Alexander Korda - 2011 - Vous Vous Avez Encore Des Secrets Á Dire

Alexander Korda was a four piece band from Arizona. They played a noisy version of screamo, the whole aesthetic is decidedly lo-fi. Raw screams, waves of distortion and occasionally an eruption of violence that aims it right at you and doesn't let go short of complete chaos which serve to accent the few moments of calm and perhaps even a a melody. On their facebook page they cite Saetia and Orchid as their influences so you might have an idea as to where this band seems to coming from artistically.

T\his kind of screamo is very adept at conjuring a world view that is a particularly melancholy, desperate, lonely world. That sound is obvious and perhaps easy to obtain, it can be difficult to see intention clearly. And by the time that thought has worked itself out in my brain the ep has ended and it's time to hit repeat.

Members of Alexander Korda have played in or currently play in: Violet Eyes, I Hate My 7th Grade Self, Juliet and Graveflowers.  Eli who played bass and Frank who screamed are now in Violet Eyesand Keegan who played guitar is I Hate My 7th Grade Self .
And before AK, Eli and Keegan were in the band Juliet 

The Reptilian - 2008 - We Have Become

The Reptilian are a three piece band from Kalamazoo Michigan. They play a really awesome brand of indie rock that borrows liberally from the emo side of things. Lots of finger tapping,  lots of emotional shouting and bucket loads of melody. They play with the likes of Innards, Jowls, Annabel, ​Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate​/ & Joie De Vivre.

This ep is old, I think it's their second release after a four way split with Lautrec, Boy Problems & Osceola. They had four members at that time so they don't play these songs live any more but three of these songs are among my favourites.

The Truth About Dreaming - 2012 - The Act Of Falling

The Truth About Dreaming is a one piece screamo band from Lansing, Michigan, USA. It's the same guy that did Flowers In Gun Barrels as well as iwontstopwonderinguntilyoustopbreathing. FLIGB was solo project and IWSWUYSB started as full band but ended up as a solo project. Truth About Dreaming is his new main project and it's just as awesome has ever.

His sound hasn't changed at all, if you like high pitched screams and melodic guitars that quickly transition into distorted insanity then this will right up your alley. I have no idea what he's screaming about but it sounds really awesome. Truth About Dreaming is signed to Plastic Smile Records, I've bought 9 cassettes tapes from and they are all awesome. If your looking for some awesome screamo cassette tapes look no further