Shortly after our recent New Album Special, Bamberg, Germany based emotional hardcore band AUTUMN KIDS are back to our pages to discuss their top inspirations that helped them form their identity as a band and create their quality debut LP ‘Letters’.
“Our first LP ‘Letters’ is the manifestation of our own sound and continues the musical journey of Autumn Kids with a dynamic, chaotic, gloomy touch. Intimate and personal live shows, paired with an anti-fascist atittude, a constant self-reflection, metaphysical approaches and dealing openly with emotions and struggles are really important for us so we try our best to put these in our music, our lyrics and in our daily life.”
1. Raw Brigade – Aggressive City
The album captures the sound of Columbian hardcore band Raw Brigade well – fast, chunky, old-school hardcore that tempts you to tear the venue apart and aesthetically leans towards something like Floorpunch, In My Eyes or Cro-Mags. Raw Brigade still slows down their attack for pounding breakdowns and occasional guitar shredding.
The cover art is killer, too.
2. Drug Church – Hygiene
Drug Church has topped everything that was done right in 2018 with ‘Cheer.’ Continuing with the strongly resonant themes of ‘Struggles of Adulthood’ they’ve doubled the power of the choruses and interspersed less sardonic lines with bluntly cynical and fatalistic themes. ‘Hygiene’ has themes so accessible that they relate to common modern misfortunes that feel all too true to the listener.
3. Silverstein – Misery Made Me
Silverstein moved with this album more in the direction of their roots and created an interesting and varied balancing act between emo/pop punk singalong passages and driving metalcore. “Die Alone” is one of the heaviest songs Silverstein has ever released, which succeeds well with creative ideas, such as a drumbeat in the intro, which is atypical for the genre. With strong contrast and following in the album, Cold Blood stands out for us. The chorus is very catchy and strongly reminiscent of 2000s mainstream emo songs.
4. Counterparts – Unwavering Vow
In the single, a Counterparts-typical, melodic chorus meets 2 breakdowns, which bring a hardness with them, as it was otherwise unfortunately only found in one mostly short song per album (Slave/Choke/Thieves). This mixture works very well here and we hope it will be more present in the upcoming album.
5. Black Country, New Road – Ants From Up There
Beautiful compositions meet heartbreaking lyrics paired with an extraordinary charm. Unfortunately, the album will remain in this form for an indefinite time, a unique experience, because the lead singer and songwriter Isaac Wood had to leave the band shortly before release due to health problems. However, a unique and, in our opinion, scene-defining masterpiece has been created.
6. Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia
Fontaines D.C. meanwhile a figurehead of the British-Irish post-punk scene and with their latest album the band has succeeded again a milestone. Overall, a gloomy soundscape runs through the whole album, but there are also often earworms again. Thematically, the album is about a critical confrontation of the band with their Irish roots, hence the name “Skinty Fia”, which is an old Irish expletive.
7. Somali Yacht Club – The Space
Powerful drums and groovy bass meet smooth vocals and atmospheric guitars. Following the principle of less is more, an incomparable atmosphere is created here, which simply has a levitating effect on the listener.
8. Mass Worship – Portal Tombs
The varying guitar playing between very rhythm-supporting and atmosphere-generating creates the musical setting to Hieronymus Bosch’s vision of hell. Here every played note appears exactly right in its place and is neither superfluous, nor does one miss unnecessary fiddling. The hammering rhythm section together with the rough screeching gives you the rest.
9. Void Of Vision – Chronicals II: HEAVEN
Extremely solid EP with awesome tuned sounds. We like the EP concept with 4-5 songs very much, so regularly something new comes and tension is maintained.
10. Rolo Tomassi – Where Myth Becomes Memory
Despite the style, it is very catchy and a very exciting overall work. The album can be listened to in any mood. In our opinion, it’s an absolute highlight.
