Pianos Become The Teeth – Old Pride

The terms “emo” and “screamo” carry with them numerous different connotations depending on who you ask. Over the years, the style – and therefore definition – has changed drastically as more people opted to recycle the term to describe ever evolving styles of music which means that different people have vastly opposing definitions of the term. For some it is an ultra polished sound delivered by guys with jet black hair sweeping across their face, for others it is more visceral and technical – like it was in the mid-nineties.

Pianos Become The Teeth is the later of the two. It is visceral, it is technical, it is passionate and it is a record beaming with raw intensity.  Old Pride is built on the classic emo and screamo structure, channelling post-hardcore influences into a cohesive burst of anger, passion and heart-wrenching glory. There is a sense of maturity and vulnerability embedded within the layered sound as they pull together the quiet/loud chaotic structure City of Caterpillar with Brand New’s mysterious and passionate lyrics.

The eight songs on Old Pride are dense explosions of experimental ambiance sometimes turning into seven minute long opuses but normally resting around the five minute mark.  The stark experimentalism and elongated instrumental sections do, at times, become a tad lengthy in an almost shoe-gazing fashion but never does it become so unfulfilling that you reach for the skip button. Instead Pianos Become The Teethebb and flow through phases of your attention – at times pulling you in and other times falling into atmospheric background music.

It’s hard to praise the record for inventiveness but it’s impossible to simply push it to the wayside either. There is something undeniably attractive in this visceral combination of pounding solidarity and spastic chaos and Pianos Become The Teeth walk the line perfectly; never fully committing to one side or the other.  So while Pensive opens with a simple drum and guitar combination and a vocalist that reeks of desperation and despair, they blast out of the gate in Quit Benefit and never stop the abrasive attack on all the senses. Then there’s Young Fire, the eight minute instrumental that slowly and surely builds up, adding new layers of melodic abrasiveness to perfectly cap of the album.

Fans of Thursday, Envy, or City of Caterpillar need to look no further than Old Pride to find another album to put into heavy rotation. This is what screamo and emo was meant to sound like – and its nice to hear that some bands are still delivering the style with the passion that initially created it.