As it would seem, the "power-violence" hardcore scene in Rock Hill, SC is no joke right
now. I'm not sure what this power-violence has to do with the spazz-core of the
early 90s that relied on mathy, almost jazz influenced burst of grindcore but I
guess I'm the wrong person to ask about all that. What I do know is that many
hardcore and metal musicians around this area began attending the
Converge/Cursed/Disfear school of blackened hardcore and began expanding into
more crusty, desolate sounds from there. I personally think its kind of cool to
still be able to imagine a heavy music "scene" in the day and age
where everything is available to everyone everywhere in the world through the
internet, so its interesting to me that a certain style of music seems to be
flourishing in one area in particular. Rock Hill's Narratives aren't as new to
this as some of these bands are though, they formed in 2008 with a more Coalesce-influenced
approach that they stripped down into a more extreme punk attack. They've had
plenty of time to grow and promote themselves, and their first release on a
label "Hell is Here" just might be their introduction to the rest of
the world.
Brevity has always been a big thing with
these bands and "Hell is Here" is certainly no exception (this
release is a whopping 8 minutes and 29 seconds). If you're familiar with this
style of hardcore then you already know that this music's selling point has
never been the amount of content that you per release, but Narratives also
don't waste any time getting their point across.
Most bands in this genre come right out
of the gate and pummel you with speed from the very beginning, but Narratives
takes the more dramatic downtempo approach in opener "Bearing". The
bleak opening chords sound like they were scraped out of the bottom of a gutter
and the track does a nice job of building an uneasy tension. This is of course
before the full on barrage of "Birth" comes in, a song featuring a
steady pounding neanderthal riff played over changing blast beats and Dustin
Dickerson's raspy and familiar sounding screams. The song then transfers into a
more traditional "D-beat" punk feel, which carries over into the next
track "Grief". "Grief" is steady but features some pretty
mean riffing while the low end grinds and churns beneath, and the vocals sound
venemous and pissed off like they should. The next track "Death"
features more dissonant, blackened hardcore riffing over artillery round drums,
before the track slows down into an almost doom classic Converge style ending.
The final track "Hell" offers more of the same but gives a good
picture of the band's full range and what they are capable of. It ended up
being my personal favorite because of the uneasy chord changes in the final
riff. At 2:28 its the longest track on the EP, and honestly I could have taken
more of it.
There are certainly strong moments that
shine through here and there and show that Narratives know how to throw down in
the modern power-violence game, but I can't help but think that with alot of
these bands that offering more per song would leave more staying power and a
bigger impression. Yes I understand the whole point here is that its punk and
it isn't supposed to overstay its welcome, but I'd like to hear more of what
these guys could do if they expanded their songwriting from the short bursts of
violence that these less than 3 minutes tracks give.
Corey
