Reversal of Man - This Is Medicine (1999)

Classic late 90s screamo/hardcore. Listened to this LP twice in a row on Saturday while doing one million pushups, still hits. There was a moment, during "Butterflies", when I realized I was listening to a song about a friend who had died, that I had listened to a bunch of times with my friend Danny who died last year, in the very room in which we had probably last listened to it; and I felt like my heart had migrated to the front of my skull and was about to explode. But I breathed, got a good clear picture of Danny in my head, said "Hey, it's great to see you, I love you," and did some more pushups. My therapist would be proud.

Track listing:

1. January Twenty Second

2. Enoch Ardon

3. Fashion Cowboys

4. The Houngen

5. Butterflies

6. Mittens and Muzzles

7. Bless the Printing Press

8. The Lottery

9. Dying on Cue

10. Conjecture

11. Hills Have Eyes

12. Transfer Zounds

13. Hand Me Complaints Please

14. Rubberneck Telepathy

15. Idle Adolescents

16. Twenty Second Example of Repetitive Nature

Friends

Let's go dig some oil

And destroy some country

You should also listen to:

pg.99 - Document #5 (2000)

Crestfallen - Streaks of Terror (2003)

Crestfallen - Streaks of Terror (2002)

Related:

Wildildlife - Six (2007)

Screamo/skramz from a then-thriving Delmarva scene. It's not exactly a lost classic, but my high school screamo band played a show with them, Charm City Suicides, and Dead Blue Sky on March 10, 2001 (I'm looking at the flier) and their vocalist did that thing where he was writhing around on the ground screaming without a mic, and I loved that shit back in the day, so I fucked with them heavily from that point on.

Track listing:

1. Nine to Five RSVP

2. Beyond Recognition

3. Never Say Never!

4. Scouring for Any Signs of Life

5. Seen and Not Heard

6. Pecking Order

7. Biting Your Tongue Off

8. Disappearing Act

9. Eternal Nightmare [Vio-Lence cover]

I can't hold my breath for that long

Same scene:

pg.99 - Document #5 (2000)

Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Forensics - On a Bridge Atop the Heap of Friends Who Jumped (2003)

Related:

pg.99 - Document #5 (2000)

Great 3-song EP from a band that, for me, never quite lived up to their potential from here. I saw them right after this came out with an old friend and bandmate (who sold me on them as a pg.99 side-project, which is kind of a stretch in retrospect -- sure, one of their guitarists is in there, but it's essentially the brainchild of Brent Eyestone, founding member of Waifle [and a bunch of other bands] as well as owner of Magic Bullet) and they blew me away. See, this was back before post-rock had been absorbed into virtually every genre of music, and it was still novel, even a bit confrontational for a hardcore band to open their set with a long, pretty, slow-building instrumental. And their style was pretty unique, taking cues from the melodic end of skramz, riff-y metalcore, and sludge/post-metal. But their full-length just didn't quite land -- the recording was awkward, the song titles were even more obnoxious -- and my interest fizzled. I still rock this one, though.

Track listing:

1. Boat Day at the Marina

2. So There's This Movie "Corvette Summer"

3. Pulling Rank

If we were raised as vultures

I'd torch my wings to light up the sky

If you like this, try:

Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Envy - Insomniac Doze (2006)

Off Minor - The Heat Death of the Universe (2002)

Classic screamo. The Heat Death of the Universe has it all: jerky, off-kilter time signatures, angular guitar dissonance, lots of hoarse, pained shrieks, and long song titles. Some of the more thoughtfully composed clean guitar work I've heard on a screamo record, and it's a good thing, too, because those parts constitute about half of the album. [EDIT: The two-period ellipsis that originally ended this post was a typo. I would never, and how dare you think that I would.]

Track listing:
1. The Heat Death of the Universe
2. This Is a Hostage Situation
3. It's a Beauty
4. Punch for Punch
5. The Transient
6. Staring Down the Barrel of Limited Options
7. Spartan
8. Monday Morning Quarterbacks
9. Off Minor

Ghosts of shadows passing on city streets

For more like this, try:

Love Lost But Not Forgotten -
Love Lost But Not Forgotten (2000)

pg.99 -
Document #5 (2000)

Envy - Insomniac Doze (2006)

Fuck, I forgot how great this record is! On Insomniac Doze, these Japanese hardcore legends aggravated a good chunk of their fanbase by going the Isis route, crafting an album of expansive, passionate post-metal. Their take on this sound, however, still draws heavily from screamo, and feels more human, and less cryptic than their peers.

Track listing:
1. Further Ahead of Warp
2. Shield of Selflessness
3. Scene
4. Crystallize
5. The Unknown Glow
6. Night in Winter
7. A Warm Room

Farewell to words

You'd probably also like:

Sadness -
Somewhere Along Our Memory (2016)

Sylvaine -
Wistful (2016)

The Avenging Disco Godfathers of Soul - The Ultimate in Authenticity and Musical Usefulness (2002)

Chaotic, math-y, all-in-all bonkers hardcore/screamo. A great deal of synth, as well as some other unorthodox instrumental choices, assure maximum mind-fuckery. As unfashionable as they may seem -- the cringe-y name, the wackiness, their style hasn't been relevant in almost two decades, etc. -- none of that stops TADGOS from delivering the fucking goods. Plus, go ahead, try to tell me that "Headache in My Ass" isn't a song title for the ages.

Track listing:
1. Somewhere in the Arteries
2. Caribbean KnifeFight
3. Invisible Jacket
4. Reflex Point
5. Revelations Part 2
6. Headache in My Ass
7. The Clone Chamber
8. Witch Hunt
9. Revelations
10. Burned at the Stake

I'm from hell, open a windle

You might also like:

Love Lost But Not Forgotten -
Love Lost But Not Forgotten (2000)

Curl Up and Die -
Unfortunately We're Not Robots (2002)

pg.99 - Document #5 (2000)

Not that I'm an expert or anything, but I feel like I know enough about screamo to confidently assert that Document #5 is the greatest record that the subgenre ever produced. Gnarly riffs, fucked-up time signatures, raw vocals, art-damaged noise, and little flashes of melody that keep you in touch with how brutal all the other parts are. To top it off, there's an album-ending epic to end all album-ending epics about an alien abduction that, supposedly, the lead vocalist sincerely believed had happened to him.

Track listing:
1. Ruiner of Life
2. Comedy of Christ
3. Skinpack
4. My Application to Heaven
5. Hotel Nevada 1982
6. Humans with Forked Tongues
7. Murder, Conductor
8. (...)
9. Sounds of Gravesiter
10. By the Fireplace in White

I wish you did exist because I'd part your ass like the red fuckin' sea, and fuck you until you bleed

If you're into this, you should hear:

Love Lost But Not Forgotten -
Love Lost But Not Forgotten (2000)

Majority Rule -
Interviews with David Frost (2001)

The End - Transfer Trachea Reverberations from Point: False Omniscient (2001)

Some of the best mathcore I've ever heard. Chaotic, dense, and heavy, with a screamo (that's the old definition, mind you) edge, and a few moments of strange, woozy beauty.

Track listing:
1. Her (Inamorta)
2. Opalescence.I
3. Opalescence.II
4. The Asphyxiation of Lisa-Claire
5. For Mankind, Limited Renewal
6. Sonnet
7. Entirety in Infancy

To never be shown in the open world

If you like this, try:

Love Lost But Not Forgotten -
Love Lost But Not Forgotten (2000)

Majority Rule -
Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Gasp - Drome Triler of Puzzle Zoo People (1998)

Mind-melting, experimental, psychedelic grind/powerviolence. Explosions of blast beats, breakdowns, and pissed-off sludge interspersed with thick, echoing soundscapes. I remember in high school hearing Gasp on the Reality #2 comp, then going to buy this LP only to have my friend tell me that it sucked and not to bother. What a jerk. If I had gotten stoned and listened to this when I was 17, my head probably would have exploded.

Track listing:
1. Can't Seam a Mongrel Bly
2. Silk Orbita
3. Eyes the Tentacle and Arachnid Knew
4. Remembered 29 Times
5. Floors Building Legs
6. Little Jupiter Come Home to a Great Man
7. Eating the Translucent Old Folk's Village
8. Sky Flowers Through Horse Eggs
9. Forest by the Concubined Sea
10. Auroren
11. Hungry Wer Pedal's Loaded Luggage
12. The Climbing Neuronium Ladder
13. Trippy Dead Zone
14. Renion Dusted
15. Modern Fuel Plan
16. Fluttering Gnome-Lette Suite

Planet of the apes

Maybe you'll like these, too:

Love Lost But Not Forgotten - S/T (2000)

Gaza - I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die (2006)

Love Lost But Not Forgotten - Love Lost But Not Forgotten (2000)

Been on a bit of a nostalgia trip of late. It started with The Rentals putting out a new album, which led me to revisiting their older stuff, which led me to Matthew Sweet, then Tripping Daisy, then Hagfish (lol), and somehow I ended up at this savage, angsty as fuck album. Though I don't feel as though my entire world is crashing down around me nearly as often as I did back in high school, Love Lost But Not Forgotten makes for a handy simulation.

When I first randomly downloaded "Loathing" (off of Napster, bonus nostalgia!) I could not believe my ears. The over-the-top, high-pitched shrieking, the breakneck time signature changes, the almost smooth clean guitar breakdowns, the fact that the screeching continued over top of said smooth breakdowns -- it was complete insanity. I quickly tracked down the rest of the record and listened to it four million times.  Still ranks as one of my all-time favorite screamo (note: old definition) records.

Track listing:
1. Intro
2. Means to No End
3. Loathing
4. Save Me from the Outside World
5. Believe
6. Supine
7. Push Past
8. Cutting Away
9. Drown
10. Unfound
11. Swallow
12. Untitled

Headless, sleeping soundly

Majority Rule - Interviews with David Frost (2001)

Killer screamo/ hardcore power trio with psychedelic leanings (read: the guitarist had a delay pedal and switched to the clean channel sometimes,) Pretty sure I went to the record release show for this album in DC. Also pretty sure that Antiproduct played, but my friends and I had just realized how fucking terrible that band was, so we left early and listened to this on the drive back instead.

Track listing:
1. The Sin in Grey
2. At 3 A.M.
3. Burial Suit
4. Xoxo
5. Progress of Elimination
6. Endings
7. Kill the Cheat

Burned himself for you
Burned for your lies
From now on, it'll be different

Pariso - Consanguinity (2013)

I'm not sure why it happened - maybe it's because I've been hitting up the gym 2-3 times a week in order to crunch-squat my guacs via some klankosaurus reps - but I've been jamming a bunch of hyper-produced metallic hardcore. So since my highly refined readership probably isn't ready for the cheesy, overwrought sounds of The Ghost Inside or newer Liferuiner (watch that big ol' emotional butterball bounce!), here's Pariso. While there's a certain prettiness to this record, it's fully in line with 'true' metallic hardcore standards, meaning that there are blastbeats, weird chords, and gnarly riffs, and the singer keeps things in a nice, raspy midrange (i.e. no meaningful nasally hooks.) I dig. Free/name your price via bandcamp.

Track listing:
1. The Separation
2. Maniai
3. Pigs
4. Methuselah
5. Tower of Genus
6. Equivocation
7. Montserrat
8. Trolljegeren
9. Dead Blockade

GO NOW