Prize Country
With Love
Hex
Records 2009
Oregon's
rocking post-hardcore outfit slam into your flesh and your heart like a
clenched fist, bloodied with anger and regret. Immediate
comparisons to a rockier version of Quicksand can be made and I even
hear some references to Seaweed in their sound. But that would
sell these firebreathing rockers a little short as they have a seedier
side to their style than either of those bands. Case in point is
Regular Nights, with its fiery vocals and Fugazi echoes within its
surreal riffs that jump back and forth between meaty and dream-like
melodicism. A thick, shuffling bass guitar sets the stage for the
angered strains of It Was A Night Just Like Tonight. A huge main
riff bashes like a sledgehammer and things get rowdy on Gamble.
The Seaweed accents reveal themselves periodically (I Could be A
Knife), but the more you listen to the near melodies with a punk edge
on songs such as What We're Made Of you can see these tracks softening
up a little and then drifting on to albums like Four from those Tacoma
veterans. Bigger Picture takes the DC elements of Fugazi's
explorative songwriting and then smashes them up against the angst of
Seaweed and builds and angrier, yet somehow contemplative monster.
The albums ends on a saddened note with the title track.
Sort of a longing look over the shoulder, regret seeps out of the
riffs as well as the vocals. Prize Country delve deep into DC
post hardcore foundations, rough them up and rock them out to form
their own raucous yet subtly emotional style which punches first and
keeps the regretful fists coming. With Love is a deeply exciting
and turbulent listen.