Reign Supreme - Testing The Limits Of Infinite

Genre: Hardcore / Metalcore
Release: July, 2009
Recorded & Produced by Will Putney at The Machine Shop
Deathwish Records
Download (mediafire)

Fists come flying courtesy of Philadelphia's own wall of sound Reign Supreme. Taking shape as an almighty slab of dense but evocative hardcore, that doesn't once try to masquerade it's metallic influences. 'Testing The Limits Of Infinite' well and truly brings the fight, but manages not to ignore the band's very own penchant for emotional presence.

Produced by Will Putney, who has worked under Machine with distinguished artists ranging from Lamb of God to Every Time I Die, at The Machine Shop in New York, ..'Testing The Limits' never set out to tear down musical boundaries. Instead the four-piece has poured their collective ideas into a vast mixing pot and solidified each common goal into something punishing, unforgiving, yet at times heightened by an innate passion - instilling a 'larger than life' atmosphere. That anthemic quality is something vocalist Jay Pepito is sincerely brazen in approach to. "I want them [the listener] to know that hardcore still makes me feel like every lyric is an anthem to my disillusioned youth." Jay stated he wanted to write a record not unlike Age Of Quarrel but for his generation, all the while drawing influence from Sepultura, Pantera and other 90's metal.

The Band, completed by guitarist Mike Doto, bassist Klint Kanopka and Joe Vergaraon on drums, have showcased a monumental 13 track outing, where each burst comes as a revitalizing wake up call to the joys of unrelenting metal inflections; skewered at the navel by shape and familiarity undeniably rooted in hardcore. Tracks such as the reworked 'Apostle' instantaneously bombast the senses with enough conviction to rattle your vital organs, sharply followed by the twin peaks of 'In Absentia' & 'Failure' which flare into thundering giants of metalcore, unyielding but far from predictable. The polarizing 'Waiting' meanders the path further, an instrumental niche in the bud of the record.

Studio tricks and engineering know-how have played their role in uprooting this record and subsequently this band from the platitude & pit-falls of a genre dangerously teetering on the edge of being stale, but in reality it's Reign Supreme's own notions of overcoming expectation that have really spurred them on to deliver a great metalcore record.

This is a band that can follow the same pattern that has been around since the 90's and take it up several notches without evolving it too far past the point of being accessible. A truly great record and already a watermark for future hardcore of '09.

Corporate Magazines Still Suck

They printed my fucking letter! Not only did they print it, but they gave me letter of the month aswell. Rock Sound is unquestionably the best music publication in circulation, the no mans land between them and the how should I put it..'K' orientated weekly tissue paper pamphlet grows extensively from month to month. Thanks Rock Sound, for holding it down for the underground.





Page 6! Oh Sean Smith I hope you catch an eye full of this. If anyone is wondering what on Earth I'm harping on about like an incessant Macaw then see this previous blog post

The Gilded Few

Nothing Gold can stay for long.
Fleeting strings of Love that bond,
Whisper winds to skies of rouge,
The lulling Moon to your sleepy blues.

Take your solace in the mirth that made him,
From Earthly endeavors the same we be lift.
Ever do we drift together,
Through reeds, over bows and the rifts.

Nothing Gold can stay for long.
Like seed sewn pastures one by one,
And beds of all that flush to bloom,
We hold our place in Nature's plume.

Ever do we band together,
My friend don't be weaned by fright.
Go gently in as softly goes,
A brace of birds so keen on flight.

From Mother's milk and arms to nest,
From Love that led you not astray,
Our hearts will bud and fade with ache.
Nothing Gold can stay.



Rest in peace Ryan,
I realise I borrowed a line from Robert Frost for you x

Throats

Jess Morris (so I don't get sued)

'They're like Converge on acid' ..Thats what Frank Carter had to say about London based hardcore act Throats. Spend all of 15 minutes with their 2008 split with fellow British young bloods Maths and you'll realise how close to the mark that analogy is. Agonizing one minute, scalding the next.
As a group of individuals raised on pure angst and Cursed, the outpouring of hate and bile was always going to be something punishing.

Track one Black Thursday of 'Notes From The Turncoat Campaign', a split with American act The Network, is a savoured nugget of rambling riffing cloistered midway through by Alex Wealand's fucking caustic shrieks at either end. With such a serrated edge to his voice it's not hard to imagine him going toe to toe with Jacob Bannon & taking no lesser form than Lucifer on stage.

You would be hard pushed to find anything else akin to the Throats experience in Britain at the moment. In fact i'd go as far as to say it simply does not exist. The band rounded out by bassist Thom Sadler, drummer Chris Medgett and guitarists Bill Trevey & Mark Ringrose, are not concerned for one second with disposable hooks or throwaway melody. Their astringent brand of grind inflected hardcore renders alot of contemporary heavy acts tame.

Opening their side of the Maths split EP is Headclouds, an ominous three and a half minutes of brooding guitars and skull cracking stickwork which, eventually ignites an already doomy atmosphere with incendiary vocal barbs. Tumbling all limbs flailing into Locked Blue a short and sick hardcore melée which works itself into something of a groove by the end. The grind induced fever continues as Reign of Low and Comedown barage the senses in quick succession, only to then lure the listener into a gulf of suffocation.
Deathnaps steals the show, clocking in at six and a half minutes it is their Iliad, their Odyssey. A meandering barbarian of a song comprised of Throat's hardcore punk aggression aswell as their love for creating an atmosphere thick enough to choke on.

The most impressive track comes from the Turncoat split EP. Final track Hibernate staggers into an immediate vocal tirade, progressing into a gloomy trade off between distortion and blaring, 'I can't believe what this world has done to me' pierces the heavy veil of bass and guitar backdrop to leave a marked impression.

Throats are nowhere close to their high noon, they're still yet to record a full length but with a split being released in August with Sheffield's Rolo Tomassi no doubt they'll pick up more deserved attention. Give them a listen, they'll no doubt gut you bow to stern.

Check out their myspace


Purchase


Purchase

Boddah

Infantile Lifeform Of a Voiceless Era, Angst Never Deputied.
Mother Is a Second's Solice.
Kissing Under the Rotting Trusses

Carry me On, Beyond Angels, Illuminating None
Marry a Yoko, Harbour Everything, Rule Over.

Federal Glands In Resolute

I wrote this in April.

My facade bears grit
Twelve teeth and I loathe this waste-town
Buffetted by the lands I pass through
By every wall in a labyrinth of grey hue

All I breathe does nothing to relieve
The Siren song in choosing right or wrong
All I breathe just boils the Blood in me
Tax me dustless, I wouldn't want to be the leech

I pass my time pulling wings, throwing bottles
Unstable, I'm a drop out - clawing back the contact
Yes I am, yes I am, my heads above the sand
With limbs steadfast teathered in the ground

I dont fuck with law,
I dont smoke the draw
A guilty conscious and a tool of War
You're all thieves and you'll fall to your knee's
You're all thieves and you'll fall to your knee's

All I breathe does nothing to relieve
The Siren song in choosing right or wrong
All I breathe just boils the Blood in me
Tax me dustless, I wouldn't want to be the leech