WSOU

Album Review: The Banner- Greying

Date: January 12, 2015

 By Adam Romero

It had been over 6 years since The Banner released a full length album. On December 9 2014, the New Jersey native hardcore/horrorcore band released Greying, an album proving to be their most ambitious to date. The Banner historically is a band that helped shape New Jersey hardcore into what it is today, yet this latest release shows that this band still has much to offer.

The album starts with its longest track "The Dying of the Light", which is six minutes of droning and horrifying guitar and drum progressions. This song sets the stage for what this album is: a violent and ferocious sludge-metal influenced hardcore album. Samples from what either seem to be horror movies or distressed phone calls are spread throughout this track. This album's aggression builds up and starts on the next track "Circle of Salt". Some of the album's best drumming is on this song, stressing the build ups towards the track's breakdowns. Vocalist Joey Southside ends the track with the haunting screams of "It Never Gets Better!" that leave the listener wanting more. The next track, "Crippling Despair" should be familiar for any avid listener of WSOU. This track was at the top of our charts for the holiday season, and for good reason. The intensity of this track almost never ceases accept for periods of desolate and isolated guitar work by guitarist and founding member Garret Defalco. Vocalist Southside delivers a performance which I found similar to that of Jacob Bannon of Converge off of tracks on their most recent and critically acclaimed album All We Love We Leave Behind. The lyrics are tortured and morose, and well written. Several tracks off this album share these common traits without ever ceasing the in-your-face-intensity, or feeling stale.

On a couple tracks off this album the band experiments by dipping into more doom and sludge metal territory. Southside adopts vocals like that of Peter Steele of Type O Negative, and the band's pace slows down drastically. The vocals are so spot in fact that I wouldn't be surprised if Steele had actually made a guest appearance on this album. The two tracks that The Banner adopts this style are on the fourth track "Sunlight", and the seventh track "Send Me Down". "Sunlight" feels and sounds like a vampire agonizing over the pain of being stuck in open sunlight. The entire track is slow yet presents such a dense and suffocating sound. On "Send Me Down" Joey Southside sings half of the track in his slow and haunting clean vocal voice, while the rest is done with violent screams. The entire song is a build up to the intensity of Southside's harsh vocals, yet doom singing returns to round out and complete the track.

The final two tracks of the album are "Bones to Dust" and "Sunset". "Bones to Dust" is an almost five minute psychedelic and groovy instrumental that is reminiscent of a blackened Jimi Hendrix performance. This track is a nice change of pace from the brutality of the tracks that it is sandwiched between. The eleventh and final track "Sunset" is the most chilling on the entire album. Cries of "Sunset!" are made between tortured verses. A heartbeat is sampled throughout the last half of the track over distorted instrumentals. The beating gets progressively slower and slower as the album sluggishly meets an agonizing and ominous conclusion.

Greying, like many of The Banner's albums, is a horror movie in audio form. This record however, is methodical in its practices. Rather than throwing a wall of intensity and sound at the listener, The Banner really opens up the repertoire on Greying. This is a must own for any fan of hardcore music, and should be a staple of New Jersey hardcore for years to come.



Please note that all review opinions are the opinions of the writer's alone. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of those at WSOU 89.5 FM, Seton Hall University, or any of its affiliates.

Posted in: Hardcore, WSOU, WSOU Exclusive, Album Review

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