A389 Records announced earlier this year the signing of Homewrecker. The band play a nasty style of hardcore with nods to powerviolence and straight out heavy hardcore. While this may sound awkward the band work in these influences in a rather seamless manner. Those who have been paying attention to the site have probably heard of The Love Below. Having made an impression last year with their Reproductive Rights EP. After what may have been too long of a wait they are back with 3 songs to show off on the other half of this split.
This split begins with Homewrecker's contribution. The band lay into their offerings with some atmosphere followed by blasting grimey sounding metal influenced hardcore (not metalcore). The songs come out with a fierce energy. "Cemetary Man" plays with dynamics switching speeds throughout. While this could be bad in most hands HW keep the song interesting and smooth enough to avoid falling off of the rails completely. The other HW song, "Internal Morgue" keeps things fast and furious meanwhile the vocals make a stronger force in the song.
The Love Below have had some setbacks it would seem. Regardless of the setbacks in releasing music it hasn't seemed to dull their fury. The band do some experimenting with their sound. The first song "Uncomfortable" rides an almost stoner metal riff for it's minute and a half run time. This makes the listener actually feel uncomfortable in the best way. Exemplifying the mood and lyrics of the song itself. Meanwhile for the last two songs the band include some other dynamics without dismissing their prior sound. This choice musically makes them sound more interesting and overall desperate (in the best way).
These two bands match up fairly well throughout. Both bands show means of being standard bearers of their style without going too far into being "experimental". One would do well to keep an eye out for both bands. With The Love Below releasing their long awaited LP this year and Homewrecker touring like crazy it can only be so long before the hardcore world recognizes their power.
