Lav's Music Corner

For the people who can tell the difference between all these genres, I'm sorry, and I promise I can to. But this was the best way to quickly talk about a bunch of records I wanted to comment on regardless in a rapid fire fashion. Enjoy <3 THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED - The Armed When The Armed broke through to a massive new audience on their 2021 album ULTRAPOP  they seemed to hit on something unique. They mixed the sounds and compositional styles from the indie rock umbrella into the pure ferocity of their screamo and hardcore demeanor. While I appreciated what the band did, I had an issue with the actual sound of the record. The production and mixing seemingly robbed the band of their most intense elements, with screams and churning guitars that felt like they never sounded as heavy as they were supposed to. Unfortunately, the EXACT same issue plagues this record.  The trio of singles for the album are the main reason I decided to cover it at al...

Review by Lavender: Foxing are an emo band from St. Louis, or at least they were at the start of their tenure. 10 years ago they released an album hailed by many as a modern classic of the genre, but since then they've wandered in all kinds of different stylistic directions. Unfortunately, I haven't been nearly as crazy about any of the material that followed. That culminated in 2021's arena-rocky mess Draw Down The Moon  which I didn't particularly care for. But after the band announced a shift away from labels entirely with their self-titled 5th album and followed it up with two kick-ass singles, I was pretty excited to see what they delivered.  Let's talk singles first. I likely wouldn't even be talking about this album right now if not for Greyhound  the lead single that left me floored. For what it's worth Foxing aren't a band that I'm specifically expecting to be very playful with composition so the fact that they stretch this into a full 8-min...

It's that time of year when I apologize to some of the more outside-the-box music genres for focusing a little too much on pop, rap, indie, rock, and R&B. Let's give both hardcore and screamo, and some records that exist within the folds of both, a chance.  Persona EP - Gel Last year Gel rode in a huge wave of hype to deliver one of my favorite debut album of 2023. When they the pummeling single Mirage  earlier this year it made it seem like they would continue climbing that mountain whenever their next project arrived. That next project is Persona , a 5-track and 13-minute EP that's only a few minutes shorter than the album that preceded it. The new project serves up songs like Martyr , a similarly short but surprisingly versatile and unrelentingly fiery two minutes that would have fit in well on Only Constant . But it's the very shoes the EP has to fill that handicap it from hitting as hard as it should.  Take a track like Shame  whose vocal layering should mak...

Review by Lavender: Your Arms Are My Cocoon is kind of the definition of a cult hit. In 2020, the Chicago project spearheaded by Tyler Odom released a self-titled EP consisting of just 6 tracks that stretched only 13 minutes. Now half of those songs sit with more than a million streams on Spotify, as Your Arms Are My Cocoon proved the old axiom that if you make good art people will find it. The project rose from the corners of DIY screamo and skramz Bandcamp scenes to develop an absolutely beloved fanbase in various circles of music discussion online. Now, nearly 4 full years later after multiple extensive tours, the band is back with a full-length debut album.  Let's get this out of the way first,  death of a rabbit  is a deliberately challenging listen that will not be for everyone. This isn't just a screamo record, but an exceedingly lo-fi one that deploys jagged recording, muddy mixing, and blistering screams throughout. But in contrast, those sharp edges are met with...

Foxtails are an American screamo band from the northeast who have been around for almost a full decade with 4 albums under their belt. They've received attention from both critics and fans in the hardcore underground for their fusions of screamo with genres like classic post-hardcore and contemporary emo.  Review By Lav: I feel like I've been aware of this band for a while and have heard buzz about their singles or records here and there but this is the first time I've taken a deep plunge. It also felt like in my head that this was a relatively new band but I blinked and suddenly their four albums deep so I had to do a little bit of catching up before doing this review. But now I'm here and I can say for certain that I appreciate some of the unique things the band does among their hardcore contemporaries. I can also say that this is my favorite of their records to date and the increase in buzz among critics is appropriate.  The thing that really sold me on this record a...