Buried Inside - Spoils of Failure ; Celeste - Misanthrope(s) ; Magdalene - S/T

"Screamo" as it's commonly called, gets a bad rap.

This is wholly deserved, assuming you're only talking about the "pop-punk with guys screaming over it" flavor of "screamo" which has hit the radio in the last few years.

As a genre, despite it's lofty beginnings as a sort of refreshing alternative to the tired tough-guy moshcore and youth crew that dominated the hardcore scene, the most visible elements of "screamo" have pretty much disintegrated into a pop-culture joke. I no longer think of passionate, DIY bands like I Hate Myself, Orchid, Honeywell, and I, Robot when I think "screamo," but of dirty kids with big, goofy hair, taking pictures of themselves for their MySpace page. Like I said, what passes for a "screamo" band now is any old misogynistic, frat-guy pop-punk band with a dude who yells every once and a while.

And then there's brokeNCYDE. The less said about that, the better.

This is all a shame because the most visible stuff which people tend to reference to write off the whole genre is only a tiny fraction of what's going on in the genre, and certainly not the stuff that best represents the history of this line of hardcore music.

It's funny, because in the late 90s I remember thinking that it was a wholly un-cooptable genre. It just seemed too out there at the time for something like MTV. Leave it to the douchebag apolitical punk kids/record executives of the world to find a way to take a genre known for a small is beautiful/fuck capitalism approach to music and turn it into Warped Tour second stage gold.

I always resisted the term "screamo" even when I was in a band that could have reasonably been called that. It seemed gimmicky and inadequate. I just preferred to call that kind of music "hardcore." It seemed, at the time, like it was taking the urgency and stripped-down approach which was starting to get lost in a lot of "hardcore" and reclaiming it. As such, I figured that there was a good deal of continuity there.

Having said that, the whole thing, now, appears to be a bigger break than I felt it was at the time. With the benefit of hindsight, I feel like I can see now how what we had was a new way of doing hardcore, which allowed for more diverse elements to be brought in.

As I've said, I think a lot of the bands that get labeled "sludge" and "post-metal" now-a-days have a lot of shared history with the late 90s screamy hardcore bands which is often missed by a lot of people who want to draw a direct line from Neurosis to Isis to any sludge band.

Today, I'm going to take a look at three of these bands who have been influenced both by that opening up of hardcore in the 90s and the incorporating of metal into the equation. It's worth pointing out that none of them are American. We've always sucked at this stuff, unfortunately.

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First up is Canadian wonder Buried Inside's new record "Spoils of Failure." You've probably heard Buried Inside, and have probably heard this record, so I won't spend too much time on it.

If you HAVEN'T, I think it's probably the best thing Relapse has put out since ever. Buried Inside is obviously a bit outside of Relapse's usual repertoire (then again, so is most of the best stuff they put out) but is well worth the time and attention of anyone even tangentially interested in rocking music.

Buried Inside have blended so-called sludge and so-called screamo in such a seamless way that it's hard to imagine them ever being separated again. Their last album, 2005's "Chronoclast," was a pretty solid chunk of rock that explored both of these sounds. This new album delivers on all of that album's promises and more.

The band they share the most affinity with is probably Year of No Light, whose album "Nord" was another salvo in the border skirmish between sludge and screamy hardcore, but this album more fully realizes the genre blending. "Nord" sometimes feels like it's shifting back and forth between the two genres while this record feels much more like one big, monolithic entity, crushing you and everything you hold dear.

Long story short, if you don't like this record you're wrong.

Buried Inside

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Next is France's Celeste. Like Buried Inside, their last album "Nihiliste(s)" found them exploring two different sounds, although I would say that the metal they're incorporating is more black than sludge. Their new album "Misanthrope(s)" pushes their sound further, towards a masterpiece of raw, screaming intensity.

Celeste is one of those bands that can be almost draining to listen to, given how dense their songs are. Real noisy guitars, throaty screaming, dissonant riffs, and spastic drums pile up in each one creating a pretty satisfying, but formidable, wall of chaos to try and get around.

They definitely have more in common with the kind of traditionally European way of doing hardcore, with an emphasis on raw, harsh sounds and driving beats. Celeste kind of sound, to my ears, like what would happen if you crossed that kind of spastic European hardcore like Nikad or Lack with old school, stripped-down black metal. The result is a kind of churning mess which really gets under your skin. If that sounds even remotely appealing to you, you can check out the record for free right now, but I recommend buying the vinyl as, let's face it, it looks pretty fucking sweet and you can get it with an inverted cross screened onto it.

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Finally, we have the self-titled debut from Italy's Magdalene, the newest and least known of the three bands, but with potential to burn.

First off, I should point out that only a bunch of Italians would think to call their hardcore band "Magdalene."

Second, I should point out that this record seems to me to be the most direct link of the three to exactly the kind of stuff I liked to hear in the late 90s. Magdalene have a kind of throwback sound which reminds me very much of "All the Footprints You've Ever Left..." era Envy or maybe a more melodic City of Caterpillar. Their songs are long, uplifting, and tuneful, almost like the band I wish Mineral had evolved into. Like, if you took all those rocking songs that were collected on Mineral's first CD and the cranked them up for the next release, instead of down, you'd have Magdalene.

So despite being a bit of a throwback, I think Magdalene has a lot to offer ears that are willing to give them a listen in 2009. I have a feeling that when they get around to writing a full length it will definitely be a pretty rocking slab of awesome, ready to take the world by storm.

Magdalene on MySpace

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So to sum up, looking past the kids-with-goofy-hair-screaming-over-pop-punk-date-raping-16-year-old-girls crowd, there's plenty of interesting stuff out there in this vein, if that's what you're into.