Arts & Entertainment
 

Canadian boys play hard screamo

Northern neighbors meld musical styles

By Ray Hafner
The Daily Cougar

Call the sound screamo. Call the bands screamies. Or, if you're a purist who hates even the emocore label, you can always resort back to "melodic hardcore" when trying to break the genre down. At the end of the show though, none of this will matter. Because out here on the fringes of what MTV2 dares to play is some of the most exciting and original rock music being heard in clubs today.

And it's from these fringes that Canadian act Boys Night Out has emerged, bringing with it a swirling, gnashing mix of heavy hardcore and lyrical rhapsody, played out over ten quick tracks on its debut album, Make Yourself Sick.

Unleashing a sonic fury from the disc's opening scream to it's dying yell, is lead vocalist Connor Lovat-Fraser, and he's equally effective punking it up or breaking it down. But the rest of the band also comes in on top of things with screeching guitars, thunder-hammer bass licks and rapid-fire drums that'll pummel any unsuspecting listener.

But this is no one-dimensional anger factory churning out teenage angst (although it does a good job of that). Few bands would take the time to so sharply examine how things can fall apart, as it does on "The Subtleties that Make Mass Murderers Out of Otherwise Decent Human Beings." If you think the title is a mouthful, the punk-influenced number will have you screaming for air.

The album is rife with punk-sensibilities, and gives the whole thing a levity that you wouldn't normally expect when someone sings, "drag my corpse through the cities I never got to visit / Promise, don't let me miss it," or "even angels end up burned and buried in my backyard."

On "Hold on Tightly, Let Go Lightly," the album's best song by a Canuck-mile, Lovat-Fraser croons "When you're left with only a bullet, I'll bring the trigger and a promise to pull it." This sort of violent misogyny is becoming a mainstay in the genre, and Boys Night Out certainly has its fair share, but much of the lines are actually about owning up for personal responsibility.

The band will be dropping into Old Town Spring's Java Jazz Coffeehouse on Feb. 6. It'll be bringing good friends and fellow Canadians Moneen with it, along with another rising hardcore act, Senses Fail. Both of those bands have been excelling in their own takes on emocore, and this promises to be a much-talked about show. Plus, as always, the coffee's free.

Boys Night Out

Make Yourself Sick

Ferret Music

The verdict: You bring the ammo, and Boys Night Out will fire up the speaker for sure.

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