05 October 2013

HANGMAN


Not sure how this band slipped by me at the time, because in 2000 I would have been all over HANGMAN even more than I am today. Intense apocalyptic hardcore with a delivery that owes to '90s "personal-is-political," a sound that falls somewhere between that vaguely emotional subgenre and melodic German metalcore (AKEPHAL, JANE, even elements of ZORN on the two longer tracks). Female lead vocals strain to be heard (and I mean that in terms of volume and intent) while the rest of the unit blazes through eight songs in just over ten minutes. Choice jam is "Last Words," an absolute ripper than clocks in at 0:41 and perfectly executes blasting hardcore intensity, a perfect bridge between HANGMAN's ever so slightly introspective approach and just setting everything on "rage," which they also do very well on tracks like "Eviction" and "40 Hour Death Sentence." I've never heard anything else from the band, and even though this demo is 13 years old it's going to be kicking my ass all day.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOVE this demo! i also have it, ordered it on impulse after reading a glowing review in Heartattack- i have also wondered for years if they ever did anything else, but as you probably know, their name is a Google clusterfuck. someone, anyone- chime in and let us all know if this band or members did anything else.

Blind Justin said...

From what I remember this band was Simon Hay (Bacteria/Ilegal/Funeral/Bombs Away), Dave Wuttke (Drunken Boat/Living Under Lies/Coldbringer), this guy Carlos, and another person that I never met. Pretty sure they only ever did this demo.