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We Are Above You
Rating: 7.3 | 0 User Reviews | Send to Friend
By Al Sotack
The reason I grabbed a hold of this new Hydrahead Records release was twofold. First was the label itself; during my inchoate years of rock scholarship (read: teenager) there was perhaps no single record label I was as aware of. Those were heady days for underground metal, and the Hydrahead roster seemed like a primer in the potential for the genre’s right hand path. The second reason was We Are Above You’s first track title, “Empires In Basements.” All the nostalgia for a scene I had fallen out of touch with came burbling back, and I thought, maybe Clouds understood my remorse. It was just a guess. Truthfully, I was just wishing against hopes for something that sounded a little like Cave In. Smack dab in the middle of this album, I got my wish. “Slow Day” sounds like the best track tragically left off of Jupiter, and I was so taken aback I made it through the whole song before I bolted to google the fuck out of this band. See, its not just that Clouds embraces the spacier/proggier elements of what I loved about the Hydrahead label in the nineties, but the general fuck-off disregard for expectation that characterized those bands. So, I suppose I should not have been surprised that its ranks include one Adam McGrath, none other than the former guitarist for my beloved Cave In. Like those favorite sons of a forgotten subgenre, Clouds takes wild swings and deep digressions, unafraid to channel either Fugazi or Danzig. We Are Above You reads like a dissertation on the history of highbrow hardcore, as well as a welcome way to reacquaint with an old friend. (Hydrahead Records)
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