Tagged: screamo

Horse The Band – Bunnies (R. Borlax, 2003)

written by

The epic beginning… the synth chords… and then the devolution into screamo madness. Luckily it’s not all bad – occasional breaks make it bearable, which is good, because those synths are hot! And the lyrics are interesting, the delivery is good, the guitars fit in nicely, the percussion is exactly what the doctor ordered… it’s just all too much sometimes. Anyway, the music video fits in nicely both with the oldskool synth sound and Horse The Band’s signature ‘nintendo-core’ sound. What’s the song about? Maybe we care a bit more then Cutsman:

And a beef will rise… again!
broken machine in his hand!

Ten words:
snapping - bunnies - twitching - gurgling – forget – the – bombs – in – your – eyes

Roaring with whispers to the tiny bunnies
SMASH/SPLAT those fucking bunnies.

Send them information in a sensationalist manner, THEY CORRUPT!
Heads snapping and misspelling eyes twitching in response to the sound of the words.

Red world-like words
zooming, boiling
Moons in the shallow sky.

Roaring with whispers to the tiny bunnies
SPLAT/SQUISH those fucking bunnies.

Twitching, bleeding, screaming,
bring the hammer down.
Screaming bunnies bleeding
bloody bunnies smeared across the ground.

Drool spilling down his chin
unto his beard
as he screams red words at
A blank and pointless sky
of mothers.
Red words popping and crackling black.

Ten words:
Snapping – bunnies – twitching – gurgling – forget – the – bombs – IN – YOUR – EYES!

Forget the bombs in your eyes,
Speak the words to crack open the sky.

What’s going on? “forget the bombs in your eyes” is an excellent line, and the breakdown at “drool spilling down his chin” is good too, bringing up the ‘red words’ again, the ‘red world-like words’. The “Send them information in a sensationalist manner, they corrupt! Heads snapping and misspelling eyes twitching in response to the sound of the words.” line seems like the important part. It sounds like people with knee-jerk reactions – paranoid people, people who watch the news and keep their kid inside or out of chat rooms, people who post totally ignorant comments on any news article or piece of online media they run across.

Anyway, you’ve got to admit this song is a wild ride. Due to my general lack of appreciation of the genre, Horse The Band rarely comes up with tracks that I really enjoy, but this one is definite a winner. The music video is cool as well, of course.

Linkin Park – With You (Hybrid Theory, 2000)

written by

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Okay, some people don’t like Linkin Park at all, and to be fair, looking at their other music, I can understand why – but how could you not like Hybrid Theory? It managed to be completely different from what the genre expected, and ‘With You’ is an excellent example.

‘wicky wicky wah’ synth scratches, a brooding bass line, and some guitar effects lead into the main groove at :14, resolving at :22 into the high screamy synth, rhythm electric guitars, and rock percussion. So far, pretty average (apart from that bendy synth), and then you get the lyrics, presented in a sort of quiet rap:

I woke up in a dream today,
To the cold of the static
and put my cold feet on the floor 
Forgot all about yesterday 
Remembering I’m pretending to be where I’m not anymore 
A little taste of hypocrisy 
And I’m left in the wake of the mistake, I’m slow to react 
Even though you’re so close to me 
You’re still so distant and I can’t bring you back

Nearly all these lines are gold: “woke up in a dream today”, “a little taste of hypocrisy”, “left in the wake of the mistake, slow to react”… and the repeated word in “the cold of the static and put my cold feet on the floor” doesn’t even bother me, for some reason. The melodic sceamo chorus is so-so, but is a lot more stomachable and harmonic then other stuff I’ve heard. And then the rapping comes back:

I hit you and you hit me back 
We fall to the floor the rest of the day stands still 
Fine line between this and that 
When things go wrong I pretend the past isn’t real 

That whole phrase is fantastic – four lines, and he’s created the setting for an entire story. Among all this, the guitars manage to be distorted and still in-tune, the percussion (which is consistently spot-on throughout Link Park’s tracks) frames everything else, and the trade-off between rapping and melodic screaming works to communicate the sort of ‘intelligent passion’ feel of the lyrics.

The break at 2:18 showcases some more mixing trickery before sliding into the optimistic bridge:

No, no matter how far we’ve come 
I can’t wait to see tomorrow

And then it’s over – the ‘bad radio reception’-effected percussion fades out and takes the bubbly synth with it.