Copy & Paste Intro: One thing we at Raised by Gypsies love is a good deal. Deathwish Inc. offered up ten compact discs for ten dollars and I could't help but jump on it. I have received promos from Deathwish Inc. in the past, but between moving and just life in general I'm not sure how many I still have- the only CD I can tell you I still have for certain is by The Dedication. So take a trip with me, shall you, as I explore ten compact discs for ten dollars.
NRWS or Narrows first caught my eye with this CD because they have a song called "Gypsy Kids". I'm going to break it down for you like this, perhaps for the first time ever. If the word "gypsy" is in your band name, album title or even a song title and I find it... I will listen to it. While it will make me like you that much more if it's good, if your music is bad, well, you can call yourself "Gypsy Gypsy and the Gypsies" and it won't matter. But yes, I do enjoy the music of NRWS and the fact that they have a song called "Gypsy Kids" just makes me like them even more.
The hardcore style of NRWS is heavy. It's somewhere between The Hope Conspiracy (think "Hope Bound Heart") and Killing the Dream or a band like that I might have heard back in the early '00's. There is screaming but it's also worth noting that a decent amount of this is music based. There can be seemingly more music than words at times and that especially rings true on the last song. Even "The Fourragere" is a bit slower than the other songs on here but it's still heavy.
From what I can tell via their Bandcamp site, "New Distances" is the debut of NRWS and after that they have a self-titled release in 2010 and then another called "Painted" in 2012 which seems to be their final release. I never really mind if I start with the newest or oldest album of a band because on one hand if you start with the newest then you can travel back in time while, as is the case with "New Distances", if you hear the debut first you get to go from there in the same order as everyone who was living in the moment.
A search on Discogs shows that NRWS vocalist David Verellen was also the singer for Botch and went on to play drums for a band called Roy in 2004, who released an album called "Big City Sin And Small Town Redemption" on Fueled By Ramen and that sounds very familiar to me, as if FBR might have sent me that CD to review at one point. [Editor's Note: I just looked at the cover art and listened to the song "Rebel Hymn". Can confirm] So all of these music connections are great, I just can't seem to figure out what NRWS is up to these days.
If you like your music hard, sometimes fast and mostly in your face to the point where it could upset your neighbors then, yes, I would definitely recommend listening to this one. On its own, this is a great CD and not just because "Gypsy Kids" has become my new anthem. I'm actually really tempted now- because of this album- to go back and review Roy again, so there is also that.
On Bandcamp: https://narrows.bandcamp.com/album/new-distances
In The Deathwish Inc. Store: https://deathwishinc.com/products/narrows-new-distances
No comments:
Post a Comment