Braindead (Philadelphia, PA)
Eric Witte - guitar
Chris Lynch - guitar
Steve DiCicco - drums
Bill D’Arcangelo - bass
Stevie Vainberg - vocals
No Consequences (Burn Bridges - June 24, 2008)
Tracklist:
1. ATI
2. Sure Is Lonely Down Here
3. Over My Head
4. Guilt And Shame (mp3)
5. Presented In
6. So Single
7. Dear Alison
8. Exercise In Bad Taste (mp3)
9. No Consequences
10. A Wake For A Dream
Here’s the thing about modern hardcore: too often bands have replaced the “hard” with “extreme.” Crank out the heaviest, craziest breakdowns, sandwich them awkwardly between passages of overblown guitar wankery and undecipherable growling / melodic crooning and suddenly you’ve got so much metallic sheen that you can see the band’s pomposity reflecting in thirty different directions…and it’s friggin’ blinding.
In fact, it’s sensory overload, or an amalgamation of noise and technicality that misses the point entirely. Sure, hardcore should be aggressive, but that aggression needs to erupt from uncontainable emotion and passion as much as it does from intelligent discourse and self-analysis. That’s where the dynamics and poignancy of the genre resonates the most profoundly. Not in how far you can push the music, especially if it’s only for the sake of creating something more extreme than the musician before you.
Of course, that’s why bands like Braindead remind us that modern hardcore needn’t become a self-contained parody of itself, where louder, harder and faster is unfortunately synonymous with playing your instruments to the brink of unlistenablity.
On their debut full-length, No Consequences, the Philadelphia quintet blasts through ten tracks of up-tempo, incendiary anthems that pay tribute to progenitors such as Turning Point, Count Me Out and In My Eyes while still injecting more modern elements like melody and lush textures. Sure, Braindead have tons of pounding bass lines and searing punk riffs, all tightly wrapped inside concise, two-minute explosions of anger and introspection. And vocalist Stevie Vainberg’s cadence is both fierce and inspiring, reciting lyrics that point inward as much as they do toward the state of society and culture. Still, the band is never concerned with being the most insane, avant-garde or trendsetting. Rather, Braindead focuses on playing music that comes from the gut and takes real heart to pull off, not to mention a lot of talent and brains. No Consequences is impassioned, intense and fiery in all the right ways and its foundation is built on the good stuff that makes honest hardcore all the more relevant in today musical landscape.
Braindead is Eric Witte (guitar), Chris Lynch (guitar), Steve DiCicco (drums), Bill D’Arcangelo (bass) and Stevie Vainberg (vocals). The album features guest vocals from Jon Loudon (Jena Berlin), Mike Riley (Pulling Teeth) and Bob Wilson (Let Down). No Consequences was recorded, mixed and engineered by Steve Poponi (from the band Up Up Down Down) and mastered by Dave Downham at Gradwell House Studios in March of 2008. No Consequences is Braindead’s debut full-length and will be co-released by the band and Burn Bridges Records on June 24, 2008. The label has also pressed a vinyl version of the album (limited to 500) and released a Braindead / Blackbirds split 7-inch in 2007. The band released a five-song seven-inch on Brain Drain Records in 2006 as well.
Press Contact: Chuck Daley / Beartrap PR / chuck@beartrappr.com / 704-649-7128
