Pink Widow - Remains Of Humanity
Self-Released - 2006
By Brandon Strader
Pink Widow are trudging their way into the hardcore scene. Their sound is a lot more experimental, and implements rocking vibes and psychedelic structures that are downright weird when paired amongst the heavier portions of this short EP. "We Are The Spiders' Prey" morphs from a heavy segment with brutal screams into a much quieter part with clean vocals, and so on. Half way through the song, there is a verse with the strange sound of the bass guitar notes in reverse, and clicky clean electric sounds that leads into a heavily thrashing flood with the vocalist screaming extended notes in different pitches, which sounds pretty wicked! His ability to sing clean vocals and instantly scream parts of a word and switch instantly back to clean singing is very impressive.
(unless it was done digitally, then it isn't!) It sounds cool nonetheless. The song also has a rock 'n' roll solo near the end, though the skill of the lead guitarist isn't so impressive as he plays stuff most anyone could pick up...
"Two Evils" starts out with a nice acoustic guitar strumming performance, which is eventually joined by some awkward, seemingly off-key vocals but the intro quickly changes into the first verse that holds hefty minor-scale tremolo riffs and more clean vocals, and a catchy chorus equipped with clean vocals and harsh screams molded together the way only hardcore can do it! There's a prog rock riff converted to a chaotic hard rock tremolo section right after that, and a lot more brutality and incoherent hardcore screams. The song is pretty enjoyable and doesn't seem so repetitive at first, though it doesn't seem to have very good replay value.
The last song, "Phew! My Bus Is Here" is the shortest of the bunch, with a perky tempo, and a punky song structure. It does feature hardcore elements, like harsh screams, and the heavy guitars, yet it plays like a punk song - especially due to the percussion performance. The percussion cycles through some of the definitive punk patterns, and the vocals throughout the song are mainly clean, which makes this the most accessable track on
Remains Of Humanity. The lead guitarist plays another fairly simple solo, which leads into a slower, sludgy arrangement of powerchords and the occasional dischord all smothered with screams... Then out of nowhere, the song bursts into some speed and the lead guitarist - who seemed very unimpressive up until now - busts out a blazing sweep and some really surprising arpeggios.
Pink Widow continues on for a few bars grabbing the song by the neck and choking all the life out of it with style before the end. This release is pretty solid, and the band definitely shows a lot of potential. They're not as catchy (or commercial) as the bigger name hardcore acts, but they have their own niche and don't really "blend in" to the massive crowd of hardcore bands.
7/10
UM's Review Rating Scale
Official Pink Widow Website
