Trapdoor Fucking Exit
Be Not Content
No Idea Records
Be Not Content is my new favorite album. I just can’t get enough of it! This is by far the best recording I’ve heard in 2004 thus far, and it’s definitely of the “instant classic” caliber.
Trapdoor Fucking Exit is a bunch of young lads from Sweden who play aggressive, spastic, melodic post-punk, similar in style to Drive Like Jehu, an angrier Fugazi and Since By Man! What differentiates TFE from others, though, is their full-on destructive nature. They literally rip right through the listener with a barrage of muddy, nasty sounding guitars, bass heavy drumming and guttural vocals similar to early-day Unwound. The songs are melodically pleasant, yet they’re so heavy and driving that the marriage of melody and aggression has never seemed more right. “Return to Casketland” opens with dissonant guitars playing a strange little melody, akin to early Sonic Youth excursions into weirdness. The music suddenly explodes into a simple two note verse that steamrolls with uncontested power. This song typifies TFE’s mission of controlled chaos.
Like No Idea labelmates Planes Mistaken For Stars, TFE completely ignore the cookie cutter “screamo” garbage being fashioned from coast to coast these days. Be Not Content showcases an aggressive, melodic punk band, who spits in the face of convention. This is the true definition of “punk rock.”
No Idea Records: http://www.noidearecords.com/
