Polina - Bonehouse - Kaddish - Todos Caerán Split

01. Polina - Sexposiyouth
02. Polina - Monroe Is A Hole
03. Bonehouse - Gentle Bones
04. Bonehouse - Paper Thin Lungs
05. Kaddish - Catastrophising
06. Kaddish - To Make Use Of Fate. To Take Care Of Time.
07. Todos Caerán - Perdido Street Station
08. Todos Caerán - City And The City

The Polina tracks on this four way split offer a slightly different take on screamo/post-hardcore than I’ve been hearing lately. The music under the desperate vocals leans more on the emo side, and it creates a cool contrast. The strained screams are definitely front and center, but are complemented well by the more technical music going on beneath them. Their second song, 'Monroe Is A Hole', speeds things up a bit and adds a bit more straight forward punk/hardcore influence while still maintaining a bit of emo noodling and the desperate vocal approach. Bonehouse is up next, and then mellow things out a bit at the onset of their first offering, 'Gentle Bones'. The vocal approach isn't quite shouted, but isn't quite sung either, and rather exists somewhere in between. The guitars twist and bend around each other, while the drums are technical and light. The second song they give here continues in this same fashion, but adds spoken vocals and escalates into shouted, harmonized group vocals that are the highlight of these two tracks for sure. Kaddish brings the intensity back up to a boiling level, putting screamed vocals over technical guitars and pounding drums. The production on these songs has a great gritty quality to it, and the clean guitars have a nice fat round tone to them while the bass is gritty and holds down the rhythm well. These songs manage to have maximum impact without always being totally heavy or at breakneck pace. The guitars remain clean a good amount of the time, even in heavier, louder passages, which creates a nice dynamic and leaves the emotional weight to the vocals. Todos Caerán is left the task of closing out this split, and they do a bang up job of it. They clearly thought out the way their two songs would be perceived by themselves, and the quieter spoken introduction to 'Perdido Street Station' seems to introduce the band as a whole, building quiet intensity until the screams come in over the still building instruments. When the entire band kicks in, the emotions are front and center, and there’s a subtle melody that carries it all expertly through both songs.

Reviewed by Justin.

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