Narrows – New Distances
When the folks at Deathwish Inc announced the signing of Narrows to their heralded roster last year, post-hardcore junkies let out a collective “fuck yes!” Featuring Dave Verellen (Botch), Ryan Frederickson (These Arms Are Snakes, Nineironspitfire), Rob Moran (Unbroken, Some Girls), Jodie Cox (Tropics), and Sam Stothers (Makeout Boys), Narrows sounds exactly like they should. The guitars, while angular, pack punch bringing to mind bands like Shellac and Jesus Lizard but the parts owe more to the hardcore and metal informed racket of their prior projects. Cox and Fredericksen stack one dissonant riff on top of the other never letting up during the band’s full-length debut, New Distances.
On tracks like “Newly Restored” and “A Restoration Effort,” the band plows through the material with air-tight precision but enough looseness in certain spots revealing a “rockier” side to their style. Verellen’s bark is as potent and venomous as his days in Botch but he’s also introduced more clarity in his delivery which fits in nicely. The album opens with “Chambered” which encapsulates the strongest aspects of Narrows’s attack in the span of a couple of minutes. From there on, New Distances doesn’t let up. The group proves throughout the album that they not only possess the technical skills to make their chaotic songs believable, they also know when to hold back and let parts breathe. That’s the kind of songwriting craft that many of the younger bands these musicians have helped influence lack. Hopefully Narrows overcome their geographical issues (members live spread out in the U.S. and the UK) and keep on creating post-hardcore this vital.
Rating: 8/10
Label: Deathwish Inc
Web site: www.deathwishinc.com
By Carlos Ramirez
(+35 rating, 7 votes)
Shoot, you beat me to it. Great CD and great review.
This is my favorite album so far this year. Amazing effort from some amazing musicians. I would kill to have these guys get together and do a tour with this band.