Violent Society- Times of Distraught (1997)

Years ago, Violent Society played in my hometown, back when this place put on some really great shows, and I remember absolutely loving them.  I can remember the show pretty clearly because they played with some other great bands that night and the mosh pit was freakin' awesome!  At 17/18 or so, this was the exact style of music that I would do my best to seek out and definitely to see live.  During one part of the night, during one of their songs, I was in the pit with a local guy named Jimmy, (I wonder what happened to that guy?), and I can see the look in his eye as he punched me in the nuts because I just finished planting a right knee on his; oh such good times.  Now in that situation, there was no animosity for that happening, I mean, shit happens.  Directly after the nut smashing incident some 1-armed dude was also in the pit and with beer in hand he was thrashing around with the rest of us.  Well, old 1-armed guy hit me with his stumpy arm and in one fell swoop I landed right on a broken glass bottle of brew; once again good times.  Jimmy helped me up and immediately we laid into the 1-armed guy, knocking him down onto the same broken glass; watching him try and push himself up, bloody stump and all, was freakin' hilarious.  (sounds violent, but really that was just part of the kind of fun stuff that happens at shows!)  That night the music was great, the bands were great, the beer was great; all was great!

Now, onto the review.  Times of Distraught is a 15 track highly energetic album infused with all things hardcore/street punk.  Each and every song will make you turn up the volume and will produce an energy that is matched by very few other albums.  I have a couple other Violent Society releases, and they are all pretty much cut from the same cloth.  Fast punk style guitar that plays along with the super upbeat punk tempo on drums that are behind the screaming hardcore style vocals!  The culmination of a quintessential punk sound.  This album is short, the tracks themselves are short so this listen goes by fast and when it's done, you'll want more.

Any fan of Punk Rock/Hardcore Punk will absolutely love this album, and really this can be considered a classic in the 90's hardcore punk genre.  Buy it, try and see if they are playing live anywhere around you and do what you can to hear these guys, you won't be disappointed!

Official score- 4.25/5

Godspeed You! Black Emperor-Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (2000)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor is one of my favorite all time bands. Years ago I was lucky enough to see them live, and out of all the live shows that I have been to, their live performance ranks in my top 5.  (If I was to refine the list, maybe even top 3 live shows that I have been to!)  Live they were amazing!, seriously there's no other way to describe it.  They had multiple different projectors showing different images that they played along to; more or less social based imagery.  I still remember watching them in aw, and if I remember correctly, they had 9 people playing music.  Usually when you have that many people playing at once, things have a tendency to sound jumbled, but they did not.  GYBE is one of those bands that even with an amazingly stellar live show, their sound transitions easily to a studio recording.

Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven was the tour that I saw them play live, and the album is just as amazing and emotional as they were live.  This 2 cd release has 4 continuous tracks with a running time of nearly 90 minutes!  I know what you're thinking: 90 minutes?!  That is correct, 90 minutes, and not any of that time are you itching for it to hurry up and end. Canadian based, GYBE has a very unique way of playing the Post-Rock genre.  Each song builds slowly and quietly, then ends up becoming a huge growth of stylized sounds that will tantalize your auditory senses.  Great guitar work mixed with on the spot stylized violin/cello molds easily into their drums and percussion, reaching a point where all come together in one seamless sound; and that's with 8-9 members playing at once!  GYBE has 5 albums in total, but has many side projects that continue their sound, since GYBE is seemingly no more.  I have checked many many times, since I saw them live, in hopes that they would be touring again, with no success.  It seems as though the most prolific Post-Rock group has disbanded in this form in order to carry on in their side projects/sister bands.

If you are unfamiliar with Post-Rock, this is the band to get into first; you won't be disappointed.  In my opinion all the GYBE albums should be in your music collection.  It's very very difficult to say which album of theirs is better, for they all are very very good.  My suggestion: buy them all.  The only drawback, and seriously ONLY, is that post rock as a whole is not something that fits every occasion; it fits for an everyday listen, but due to the style of the genre, it produces feelings that might be a little downtrodden than what most circumstances ask for. 

Official score-4.75/5