Breather Resist - Charmer

If you yearn for the days of bands booking their own tours and making enough money to get back out on the road, then listen to only one record this year: Charmer.

When you look back a few years, it is not hard to see how hardcore and heavy music has changed in leaps rather than skips. You look at how style, both musically and aesthetically has changed and it is almost too much to comprehend when looking at things on a larger scale. Granted, bands like Earth Crisis and Strife have very little in common with bands of today like Atreyu and Eighteen Visions besides some general similarities, but at the same time, hardcore thrives with an undercurrent of independent bands that are making sure you can still do things the old fashioned way.

Breather Resist exist in that fertile music community of Louisville, Kentucky; where great bands such as Slint, Falling Forward, Endpoint and Elliot have all called home. Some having created some of the most passionate, diverse music around. Breather Resist themselves have a rich history for being a relatively new band. It is not every day that Jade Tree decides to release a stereotypically “heavy” release, but this band obviously sparked their interest; boasting members of The National Acrobat and Black Cross (not to mention the devastating music that they create).

This band just does everything right, from their look to their songs it how it all cohesively comes together in a manner that many bands only wish they could duplicate. With this full length, Breather Resist have created one of the best, if not the best, hardcore records to come out this year. Ugly, desperate and pulverizing, Charmer showcases that even songs that are loud and distorted can be pieced together to make songs rather than noise; which is what most would characterize this as. It hits hard, leaves a mark and would make bands like Deadguy even reconsider reforming to tour with this powerhouse. If you yearn for the days of bands booking their own tours and making enough money to get back out on the road, then listen to only one record this year: Charmer.

(Jade Tree Records)