Wilmington, This Is Hell
Up and Coming Hardcore Visits Wilmington
Thomas Smith
Issue date: 9/22/06 Section: Lifestyles
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Released earlier this year, the bands first offering to hardcore fans is a straightforward entrance into the epitome of what you expect from hardcore music. Driving guitars and blood-curdling vocals, the band%s purpose is to blast the audience with a relentless, high-energy show.
Utilizing veritable mainstays of hardcore music, This is Hell makes no qualms, lyrically or musically, about who they are: a heavy band with attitude. Displaying a good understanding of the genre of hardcore music, in your face and unapologetic about it, they attempt to smash listeners into submission with their form of rock. Vocalist and lyricist Travis Reilly is your basic idea of a metal screamer, throwing the book on melody out the window, instead focusing on the sheer, raw power.
Reilly said in a recent press release that the death of his girlfriend%s mother prior to the recording of -Sundownings' had a direct relation to the lyrical content on the album. -Broken Teeth,' a song that can be found on the bands MySpace page, has several examples of this effect. With lines like, -Getting so used to burying one of our own,' and the refrain, -We are the walking dead,' you can see the connection.
Reilly makes his feelings of confusion and disillusionment well known on the main track (also found on the bands MySpace page) -Here Comes the Rain.' He opens with a yell -I%ve been thrown into this mess now/ I%m just trying to survive/ This is the sound of a young man breaking ties…'
With a little punk, not a lot of metal, and a heaping helping of distorted guitars and break neck drums, This is Hell strikes a primal chord, reminiscent of a Neanderthal. This is music to thrash to, to take out your aggressions about life, love and that guy who cuts in front of you in the line to pay for lunch. -This is a place I never wanted to be/ These are things I never wanted say' This is Hell is a promising young hardcore band, who with the right direction and the right amount of luck, could certainly make a national name for themselves.
October will be a busy month for This is Hell, as they are on a national tour with co-headliners Strike Anywhere and Bane. Appearing at the Cat%s Cradle on Oct. 1, prior to their show in Wilmington at the Soapbox on Oct. 4, the band will be traveling through Florida, Texas and California before ending up back in the northeast, with shows in New York and Rhode Island at the end of the month. Check out This is Hell at www.thisishell.org, or on their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/thisishell.
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