Some might say the great screamo boom of the 90s has bitten the dust and fellow ghouls of the microphones are now in indie tinged emo rock bands, remembering their old job, long lost and forgotten. Meanwhile, it’s completely untrue. Indeed, most of the bands who emerged in that era, retained their charm mostly through break-ups and receiving the legend status, but the latest years were driven by a motivation to increase DIY artists’ productivity and eventually resulted in a whole new flood of records increasing in complexity and proving the genre to be more versatile and the artists to be more creative and hard-working than the hardcore community has given it credit for. US DIY emoviolence/screamo label Penguinpunks and Serbia’s Confusion Specialist Records (introduced via this interview last year) have decided to piece together a new compilation that would celebrate the current era of screamo, and we’re stoked to be a transmitter in the process. Listen to “Screams From Across The Ocean” below and check out the results of our quick interrogation of Confusion Specialist’s Filip Stojiljkovic, who explained the idea of this project and introduced almost every single band involved:
The idea for a screamo comp came up when I was talking to my friend Matthew (PenguinPunks) who’s in DESPISE EVERYTHING project. I put out a few of his eps in the past and he mentioned how he had a bunch of bands already lined up for a comp with another label but it had never materialized…
So he came to me with the idea to redo it, some of the original bands broke up but got together, we made a goal to get the best active screamo bands around the globe and we did it.
So starting with TENTACLES and GILLIAN CARTER made getting the other bands much easier. TENTACLES was at the forefront of this new wave of emo violence but unfortunately, they broke up and initially did not want to do it but Matthew reminded them of how important they were so they once again agreed.
Same goes for GILLIAN CARTER, they have been around since 2009? And they are pretty well known.
So we started with those two and everyone we contacted said yes, besides a few who did not respond.
I think we did a great job on documenting the second wave and every band brings something unique to the table.
I’m still young, Matthew is 34, so he was around for the first wave of Screamo for awhile which ended around 2003-04. There were so many bands especially in the U.S and everyone toured and put out records together. This second wave is in the digital age where things are a lot easier, so you got a lot of bands going solo touring. The idea behind the comp was not only to showcase the second wave but to also put everyone on the same release.
Continued below…
DESPISE EVERYTHING is Matthew’s project and yeah, the name suits him well. He certainly does DESPISE EVERYTHING, but he knows his music and his project is killer. It’s the 6th most listened band on the comp according to band camp stats (lol)
THE ULTIMATE SCREAMO BAND (CAN) and 5000 (Japan) are going back and forth for #1. Speaking of THE ULTIMATE SCREAMO BAND, they and COMMUOVERE are touring the U.S in june.
EAGLEHASLANDED from Serbia has an upcoming LP split with LEFT TO STARVE from Karlovac, Croatia. They will be touring to Fluff Fest soon.
FOXTAILS out of CT was a last minute addition and we are both glad we got them. They complimented the comp with the same mellowness as GILLIAN CARTER.
.GIF FROM GOD is hot off a split with Boston’s VEIN and they are really starting to build a following.
5000 is from Japan. Neither of us heard of them until our mutual friend, Natty, of Cult Love Tapes, posted a live video and we instantly had to contact them.
Then i added EVA RAS in here, adding the ultimate sass sauce to the table.
PIRI REIS from Malaysia is new to the scene and just dropped a demo and a split with COMA REGALIA on Middle Man records.
URGE from Tuscany, Italy is also an amazing band. I have put out a limited edition of tapes of their S/T EP.
Oh, and BLACK KNIGHT SATELLITE from CAN as well. More sass sauce, please.
ITTO from Chicago is super and totally fits with the comp. They are on hiatus, though.
COMMUOVERE is really good out of Canada along with THE ULTIMATE SCREAMO BAND and FRAERA and COMMUOVERE is awesome as well and that’s coming from Gabriel, who am i also working with, but I can only imagine how extraordinary they sound live. THE ULTIMATE SCREAMO BAND is just a project or vision of what Archie thinks THE ULTIMATE SCREAMO BAND would be to him, he is just kind of paying tribute to a few bands from the early days.
MELODICGHOSTS wraps up the comp with a 4 min jam with Matthew on guitar and his long time neighbor and friend Jonny Bistro on drums. It was recorded almost a year ago, but he insisted on putting it on plus, it is kind of a nice closure and I am pretty happy with it.
