Paint It Black

New Lexicon

Written by: PP on 22/08/2008 01:21:30

Paint It Black's latest record "New Lexicon" has been hanging around on my review list for about half a year now so I figured it's time to do something about it. It's received wide critical acclaim across the web for playing exactly the kind of material the punk hardcore crowd wants to hear; the scratchy underground kind, with half-shouted half-screamed vocals, fast three chord riffs with plenty of different time signatures, you know the deal. The kind of music that drips of passion and ideals from every note and every glitch, recorded at near-garage levels to achieve that lo-fi feel so many bands in this genre are fond of.

But I don't know if I'm quite convinced, strangely enough, considering I'm usually the loudest supported of the genre inside our staff. Even after spending this much time with the release, I'm still looking at a handful of decent hardcore songs that epitomize the genre well, but lack the kind of urgency that keeps you coming back to them, and only a few songs which I find myself returning to. These songs, such as "Past Tense, Future Perfect", which in addition is a brilliant song worthy of the album purchase price alone, have the same rough, angry underground punk rock sound, but also include a large element of guitar and vocal melody (interplaying with each other, of course), much like Capital or Strike Anywhere do.

The other stand out tracks "White Kids Dying Of Hunger" and "Shell Game Redux" are equally melodic, leaving the listener confused over why the band hasn't written more melodic songs instead.

I'll probably face a huge backlash over writing this considering how frontman Yemin is one of the most influential figures in punk rock history: having played both in Lifetime and Kid Dynamite has made this guy practically a God for the genre's fans, but as it stands right now, I'm having the same feeling as many people who listen to metalcore/deathcore and only hear a continuous breakdown, except all I'm hearing is an angry dude yelling about diverse problems (lyrically outstanding, nonetheless) over down-tuned hardcore riffs that remind me of Sick Of It All. That being said, for a hardcore record, "New Lexicon" isn't particularly bad, it just isn't anything special either.

Download: Past Tense Future Perfect
For the fans of: Capital, Sick Of It All, Sinking Ships
Listen: Myspace

Release date 19.02.2008
Jade Tree

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