BOTCH

I remember BOTCH's American Nervoso full length kicking my ass pretty soundly when I first heard it. I skipped a lot of the clean masculine hardcore when it was around, and only recently revisited some of those bands (and some of them are pretty good), but bands like CAVE IN and BOTCH seemed to be doing it differently, and I liked them. I saw them in Oakland (was it at The Stork Club? really? Because that's where I remember it being but man that seems like a weird spot for them to play...the guitarist was definitely tall though) and I had to scrape my jaw off the floor - advanced and self indulgent hardcore that was confident without being pretentious. By the time that We Are The Romans opus came out, I was either waist deep in generic fastcore (which is still not an unappealing predicament) or BOTCH had advanced themselves right into an echelon that I was not even remotely interested in, and I stopped paying attention after that. Enter this demo a few months back from a friend's unwanted pile (thanks, Master Ums), and man shit this is just '90s emo. Super indulgent and epic (at times unnecessarily so) with healthy doses of mosh friendly bro-core ("Imprisoned") that somehow seem not at all out of place with the vocals that are stuck between that gruff desperate screamo whine and burly hardcore, but perhaps most notable for how not polished and proficient some parts of this demo are ("Roadwork"), especially considering what the band would turn into just a few years after this. And this is a looonnnngg ass demo, clocking in well over 40 minutes....bold, my Seattle comrades, very bold indeed. I admit that this one is more interesting than enjoyable to my 2014 ears but context is important - kids need to learn about shit, you dig? 

BLIND....FROM YOUTH INSTALLED