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Review Summary: Are you feeling it now? Who headbangs in a pineapple under the sea? Massachusetts based powerviolence quartet Goolagoon - that's who. With their unique style of hardcore punk, touched with surf rock elements and a loose Spongebob-inspired theme, the Patrickviolence Demo proves to be a thoroughly entertaining EP, if a tad contrived.
First things first, the production on this album is perfect. Whereas most powerviolence bands opt for a muddy, low-fi production, Goolagoon instead favour a crisp, balanced mix, ensuring every element of their sound cuts through clearly. The bass guitar rumbles beneath the speedy, power-chord driven guitar riffs while the drumming remains punchy and exciting throughout the EP. Vocalist Lily drapes her yrics over the top of the instrumental foundation like a picnic blanket over a bed of jagged rock. Her vocal style is closer to a shout than the typical frenzied screaming you might expect, and due to this and the surprisingly level mixing, her lyrics are intelligible and effective. The band also experiment with different pacing and tempos on Patrickviolence. In between the chaos, there are slower segments full of stilted, sludgy playing and thick tones. The guitarist scatters some noticeable surf-rock clichés into his playing, such as tremolo picked downward slides and treble-y chords, especially evident on the full-on surf rock number ‘Goo Lagoon’ which closes the album on a lighter note. He always returns to the ear-shattering harmonics and breakneck playing, however, firmly establishing the bands powerviolence sound, but these temporary strolls through a seemingly incongruous genre helps this band to stand out from the crowd. The extremely short track and album duration are also typical of this sub genre, with each song lasting less than a minute and a half, making this a very brief listening experience, but a worthwhile one regardless.
Of course, the most immediate idiosyncrasy the band carries is their Spongebob references, and while Goolagoon consistently tries to impress this theme on the listener, it can't quite be regarded as anything more than a light hearted gimmick. Sure, it ties in somewhat with their surf-y influences, and each song kicks off with a sample taken from the show, but remove the samples and you're simply left with a solid powerviolence album full of unusual motifs. The lyrics have almost nothing to do with the overbearing theme, and there aren't any mid-track references linking to the supposed subject material. In the end though, it's best to just accept the gimmick for what it is and appreciate the bands attempt to inject a lighthearted atmosphere into a typically dark genre. If anything, this further demonstrates how willing Goolagoon are to experiment with the typical hardcore sound, which proves to be the Patrickviolence Demo’s greatest asset.
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Sweet little pv EP, heaps of fun. Available here as a name your price: http://goolagoonhc.bandcamp.com/releases
As always, feedback is welcome and appreciated.
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moar spongecore!
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@Sachiko- oops, nice catch thanks man
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I remember checking this and finding it tolerable.
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It's good stuff, much better musically than spongecore
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By the way you forgot your BRIEFCASE!
oh wait wrong band
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Haha, I love that part though
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Really pleasantly surprised by this - I do think that the samples are pretty unnecessary and if anything detract slightly from the aggressive energy of the album (a big draw of PV for me), but when they get going it's really solid stuff. Great review as always dude, pos'd. You going for contrib this time around? ^.^
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Thanks man (:, glad you checked it out and liked it too. Yeah some of the samples are a bit overlong too, like the bus one, but I've learned to just go with them, they're not too intrusive. And yeah man I might go for contrib, how about you?
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Yeah, they're not intrusive, they just disrupt the flow a bit which I think's a shame.
You should do it! I'm not writing consistently enough at the moment, I've only written 11 this year and 5 in 3 months so if I can get my rate up then... maybe.
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Yeah I fully agree, they'd be better off ditching the spongebob stuff because it's far from vital to their sound. And yeah I get that, you're a great writer though. Still a couple months to go.
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"Yeah I fully agree, they'd be better off ditching the spongebob stuff because it's far from vital to their sound. And yeah I get that, you're a great writer though. Still a couple months to go."
Yeah the spongebob theme is making me not want to check this out. Between xspongexcorex and swagbob the spongebob jokes have been overdone to oblivion
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It's overlookable, just frustrating. If you like powerviolence Scream I would still check this out, as the music itself is totally untouched by our little yellow sponge's influence.
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Yeah it's definitely not 'part of the music' so it doesn't really have any impact on the album, check it Scream, you could skip the short samples at the start of the songs if you really wanted to.
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Frustrating is right. The music is solid but being that the songs are so short the EP is basically 50/50 music and spongebob samples that don't fit in
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Good point, when half of a 1:30 song is an unecessary sample it's a bit annoying
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Wasn't there another spongebob-themed hardcore band, other than this and xSPONGExCOREx?
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Another spongebob influenced band eh? That being said, very enjoyable and well written review man. Keep it up!
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Thanks Atari (: and yeah it's a tacked on theme, but the music is solid.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
nice review m8
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