Album Review: After the Fall/Brutal Youth Split 7″
review by Ricky Frankel
Bands: After The Fall/Brutal Youth
Title: Split 7-inch
Label: Paper + Plastick
2019
Score: 8/10
A lot of readers may not consider that one of the hardest reviews for someone to write is of split albums or split EP’s. The reason is because you have to give one rating to two bands and typically one band will put forth better material than the other. But this is not the case with After The Fall’s and Brutal Youth’s new split 7-inch.
Albany, New York’s After The Fall definitely bring their A-game on their side of this 7-inch. In the beginning of the first track, “Sick Of Myself” the band spares no time in blasting off into a rowdy and lightening fast guitar progression along side a massive drum beat. You instantly hear this very intense contrast where the lead vocalist’s higher-pitched yelling sort of tears through the fuzzy guitar chords. And while this would be considered a hardcore song, the band manages to master the technique of switching between brutal yelling during the verses and melodic singing during the choruses. Only a hand full of bands can do this well and After The Fall is definitely one of them. Their other contribution to this EP is the track “Panic Attacks.” Some how the band was able to write a song that is more thrashy and angry than “Sick Of Myself.” On this track, After The Fall speed things up quite a bit and the lead vocals are drawn out a bit more. And while the band decided not include melodic vocals here, there is one hell of guitar solo that is full of wailing bends that complement the vocals really well. Overall, not only is it an awesome song, but it is a pretty good musical representation of what a panic attack is like interestingly enough.
In 2016 Toronto, Canada’s Brutal Youth (originally from Newfoundland) released their latest full-length, Sanguine. It was easily one of the best albums of that year. For those of you that have listened to the album (if you haven’t, listen to it now!), you’ll be relieved to know that the two songs on this EP are pretty amazing follow-up material to it. “Whiskey Jack Split” is Brutal Youth at their best. The quick and thrashy guitars mesh so well with lead singer, Patty O’Lantern’s harsh vocals. As the song progresses, he and the rest of the band seamlessly switch gears into more melodic singing (back-up gang vocals included). Brutal Youth continue their hard-hitting instrumentation in their second song, “Thin Skinned.” This song is full of rage, it’s faster, and aside from some “whoa’s” that come the back-up vocals they pretty left out any melodic singing. But that should not turn you off of this song because with lines like, “I can’t see straight/And everyone’s staring/The wolves feel like/Feel like they’re closing in,” it’s pretty clear that this a song that the band really wanted the listener to focus on their message in the lyrics specifically.
What we have here are two bands on opposite sides of the northern border, who have released one of the best EP’s of 2019. Both After The Fall and Brutal Youth are two underrated bands that the hardcore scene in particular should be taking much more notice of and this split proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
Ricky Frankel is the author of the book I’m Outta Here!: A Collection Of Interviews & Anecdotes From The Punk Scene (2014-2018), which you can find on Storenvy and Amazon.com.
About the Author
Denise Borders 39, Los Angeles. Denise founded PWV in 2008 and remains the primary manager and photographer/videographer. She is not secretly obsessed with Joey Cape.
