Scene and Heard

Pygmy Shrews + Eye Banker + Twin Stumps + Landlord at Cake Shop

Photos by Nate Dorr » Where are all the hardcore bands coming from these days?

Text by Nate Dorr
Posted on May 26, 2009

Pygmy Shrews

It seems like the rancor-spewing onslaught of Drunkdriver has opened the door for heavy, dissonant fury, and now bands like Landlords (buzz saw whammy bars, sheet metal percussion, mid-tempo guitar-grind), Twin Stumps (slower, confrontational sludge metal, hardcore like the slower side of My War is hardcore), and Eye Banker (rapid, sparely vicious — just guitar-drums-voice — tirades) have leapt into action. And it’s a welcome shot of emotion, motion, and energy. Of course, Pygmy Shrews are not technically a result of this trend: sure the project is new this year, but they’ve been at various forms of molten hardcore for over a decade now (as Cutter and before as the Fugue). I wrote enough about them last week that I’m just going to direct your attention right over there.

Pygmy Shrews