P’s Take: This is a heavy, dark-ass album. The sleeve is embossed with skulls and bones and white vulture lookin things. The vinyl itself is heavy gauge wax. The pictures are black and white and severe. It looks from the back photo that the singer of Coliseum, Ryan Patterson is kidnapping the bassist and drummer; he looms fucking huge between them. The band is named for a particularly hardcore amplifier, the Sunn Coliseum. This album and this group are not playing around in the slightest.
So how would I describe this album? Uhhh.. .Okay, imagine Roger Miret developed an interest in the occult and stuff and took A.F. into a more post-punk type direction. That’s what this sounds like. If this sounds like a diss to you, then this album ain’t up your alley, jack. If this sounds interesting to you, get this record. It is worth it. It is dark and heavy, for when you need songs about death and desolation. I don’t know what it is about Kentucky, but they been doing a good job lately. Here is my advice. Get this record now, play it a couple times and then put it away till the fall. Take it back out when the trees are dying and it’s getting cold. This is Halloween music minus the candy corn, suckas.
Coliseum
T’s Take: Work has literally been killing me these past few weeks. My office was transported from Vince Neil home sweet home NJ to NY. At P’s suggestion I now bike my ass around 6 miles daily in addition to fighting backfuckward train schedules (I used to just step on the gas and hurtle through space and time). My hours are fucked and while there is some light at the end of the tunnel beginning to come into focus I haven’t had a chance to listen to half the shit I’ve bought lately. Except of course for “House With A Curse”. I’ve had that shit on constant repeat for three weeks. It’s been my soundtrack while I ride my bike to the train station at 5 AM. It stays on when I get to work. And as a leer at pushy business men and other assorted assholes on the train twice daily it also plays.
One of the last things I did before I lost most of my free time and mind was transfer “House With A Curse” from vinyl to mp3 (sorry no download code). It’s a sweet sweet looking record though (white with black splatter) that makes up for the extra work. In fact as P mentioned, everything about how this record looks is on point. From the skulls on the front to the band photo on the back the imagery is every bit as menacing as the music. If you’re familiar with any of their other albums like “No Salvation” or the “Goddamage” EP you might think this is more of their same brand of Flag-y Hardcore… however you couldn’t be any more wrong. “House With A Curse” pushes the band into Post Hardcore territory, ups the darkness level to 11, and sounds akin to fellow Louisville natives Young Widows (and I mean this in a good way). I was talking to P and he mentioned the Dischord Post Hardcore element to their sound, which I’m assuming is augmented by Jawbox’s J Robbin’s producing this one. And really aside from Jawbox being a sure bet, anything and everything with J’s name in the liner notes is worth buying. From Jawbreaker, to The Promise Ring, to Paint It Black, to Modern Life is War and so forth it’s obvious J doesn’t get involved with shit projects.
I hope this is a sign of things to come with this band. They’ve mastered their mood and know when to pull back and when to let the floodgates open. And on “House With a Curse” they open them quite a bit.
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