Stop Breathing ‘Self Titled’ Album Review
Stop Breathing
John Crerar- Vocals
Mike Carter- Bass
Justin Dempsey- Drums
Jesse Jenny- Guitar
Ben Hament- Lead Guitar
review by Jacob Ray
@JRAY5280
Stop Breathing is about to release their debut, self- titled LP on No Idea Records on June 5th. This California hardcore outfit includes members from bands like Glass and Ashes, Young Livers, the Fucking Wrath among others. The band has been playing shows all over the west coast, sharing the stage with hardcore legends like The Adolescents and Ill Repute. They just played the annual Punk Rock Bowling festival with The Dwarves and Municipal Waste, so check out the PWV Facebook for photos and posted videos from PRB!
Track Listing
What I Want
Tomorrow’s Burden
Bombs Away
White Out
Laid To Rest
Raze It To The Ground
We’re All Dead
War On Us
Our Times
Safety Net
Marine
Lost Forever
Nite Zoo
Keep Fighting
Stop Breathing’s debut LP cuts right to the chase. There is no lengthy intro, no buildup, just straight fury. “What I Want” sets the tone for the album perfectly. With a fist in the air, shout along chorus and fast and heavy guitar parts, Stop Breathing lets you know exactly what they are about, right away.
“Tomorrow’s Burden” starts off with a classic hardcore bass line and ends with a shockingly ripping guitar solo. It sounds like something you would hear on an Iron Maiden record, not a hardcore record, but it works really well.
Then anti- war “Bombs Away” is next and doesn’t slow down the pace of the album at all. This song and “Laid To Rest” sound like an Adolescent’s song, if Dave Mustaine was playing guitar. The whole metal- hardcore fusion thing has obviously been going on for quite some time now, but Stop Breathing does it differently. Like I said, the rhythm section and the vocalist by themselves make Stop Breathing sound like a regular, old school hardcore band, but Ben Hament adds a thrash metal element to their sound that sounds really natural and I really dig it.
People who want guitar solos to stay out of their hardcore; have no fear. “White Out” is one minute of unadulterated pissed off-ness. The guitar part is really, really heavy in this song, kind of like what you would hear on a Terror or Sick Of It All album. “War On Us” has that East Coast Hardcore vibe to it as well, but I definitely think that “White Out” is the better of the two. “War On Us” starts out slower than much of the rest of the album, but the decrease in pace only lasts seconds, and at this point in the album, I would rather just keep getting pummeled with the speed and ferocity that is present for most of Stop Breathing’s self titled.
My two favorite tracks on this album are probably “Our Times” and “Safety Net”. “Our Times” is one of the best metal-infused tracks on this record. The intro is really heavy, then a split second bass transition into the first verse. The opening riff happens again halfway through the song, after an especially shreddy guitar solo and perfectly backs John Crerar screaming his lungs out about young people taking over a broken system that beats them down. “Safety Net” is my favorite track on the album. I really like the drum intro, the lyrics, and the brevity. The song is about how Crerar isn’t bound to anything because he does what he wants and doesn’t let others tell him what to do. It’s a straight up hardcore track that I just really dig.
“Lost Forever” begins with Mike Carter slapping some sick bass and moves into a fist pumping (not in the ridiculous Jersey Shore way) “hey”-chanting part which is in turn followed by John Crerar yelling “We’re going to burn this fucker down!”. This song and “Nite Zoo” make me picture in my head what seeing this band live would be like, and I would bet that it’s pretty f-in awesome, I would imagine that Crerar would spend a good amount of time with his head on someone in the front row’s head shoving the mic in people’s faces, which is exactly what you want at a hardcore how. “Nite Zoo” also has another really cool Iron Maiden sounding riff and is the least angry of all the songs on the album. But it works because the lyrics are about going out with your friends for a crazy night on the town, and the song almost reminds of a hair metal song, but only in the good ways.
The album comes to a close with “Keep Fighting”. The album closes just as it began, really angrily. There is another insane guitar solo in this song and “Keep Fighting” gives you one last reminder of how great metal and hardcore can sound together, if the band can pull it off, as you can definitely detect a Slayer influence in this song. In an almost cliche manner, Crear’s final words to us are “Don’t give in, don’t give up” and the song ends with every band member furiously strumming/pounding away at their instruments.
There are so many hardcore bands these days that don’t really break out of their local scene but I really hope that Stop Breathing does. Their self titled debut proves that they have not only the traditional hardcore ethic, but also the musical chops to hang with almost any band touring the national circuit. I haven’t really been excited about too many smaller hardcore bands lately but I am going to be really interested to see what Stop Breathing does with their Slayer- Adolescents fusion sound. You can definitely hear a variety of influences in their sound, and the fact that many of those influences are from California makes that even cooler. I really hope that these guys make it out to Colorado in the near future because I bet they are absolutely ridiculous live and I would definitely go see them. Variety isn’t something that happens in hardcore very often anymore, so definitely go pick up Stop Breathing’s self titled album if you want to hear something a bit different than most hardcore albums that have been released so far this year. They just played Punk Rock Bowling so be sure to stay tuned to Punk World Views for the upcoming coverage!
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.
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