Many Americans tend to take our music scene for granted, very rarely looking outside of our borders for new music. But if the last couple of years writing reviews has taught me anything, it's that there is a just as much music, if not more, deserving of recognition coming from areas outside the United States. Five-piece hardcore outfit Strangers may call the unlikely locale of New Zealand home, but Holding's four tracks of gritty hardcore punk are definitely deserving of your attention.
Holding's total length is just under nine minutes, but in that time the band deliver more intensity than a lot of bands do on a sixty-minute full-length. The album opens with the crushing "Meursault Blues." The members of Strangers deliver an aggressive assault of metallic hardcore that is similar to that of From Ashes Rise. While the rest of the band is destroying my eardrums, vocalist Rhydian Thomas unleashes a scathing scream very much in the vein of Chris Colohan, whom Thomas also cites as a major lyrical influence.
The title-track follows and the auditory assault continues. I know a lot of bands claim to be loud and heavy, but Strangers really are a loud fucking band. I can only imagine the damage they do in a live setting. "Holding" draws heavily from d-beat revolutionaries Discharge but also features a nice mid-section with an almost droney early Neurosis sound. Onto "Howl" and the metallic mayhem is in full swing. Guitarists James and Boob - yes that is his name - are at their best, including the dissonant breakdown before the song concludes in a fury of pummeling double-bass from drummer Face. Holding concludes with "Teenagers," a blazing and destructive sub-two-minutes that'd give even Cursed a run for their money.
Lyrically, Thomas heads in an offbeat direction away from your typical political mumbo-jumbo and scene discussions. Instead, there is a focus on nature of man and his role in society; the lyrics read more like poetry/short stories. But this isn't really a surprise given the songs' titles. "Meursault Blues" takes it name from the main character of the classic novel The Outsider and "Howl" was the title of Allen Ginsberg's most well known poem.
Strangers deliver some of this years best hardcore on Holding. It's about time people start taking notice of the scene of New Zealand - home to the equally as promising Damaged and The Wrongmen - and I have a sneaking suspicious this EP can be that gateway for a lot of people.
