Review Summary: Can an indie/emo band be heavy too? Yep.
How heavy can an indie/emo band be? Apparently pretty heavy, as proven by Barnswallow on their EP
Twos. Now, from what I understand, Barnswallow is a local band from Massachusetts with a mere 147 listeners on last.fm. Despite this the band has managed to record with a superb quality that allows both chords and vocals to ring out into your ears, driving smoothly and carefully across the room and in your head.
Barnswallow is indeed a band with a heavy sound. Downtuned guitar riffs and bass lines soar their way throughout the EP, much like
Hum and even
Isis at times. The atmosphere itself is akin to that of
Sunny Day Real Estate, with vocals soothing with emotion over the dynamic band, moving between rocking riffage and mellow sections while never killing the flow of the songs. Call it "doom indie" or whatever stupid new sub-sub-subgenre you want, these guys have managed to mold something unique together and make it great at the same time.
There are just some bands, big and small, that you can immediately tell that they put their hearts and souls into the music that they make. That is often hard to come by and even more rare is a passionate band that also happens to be trying out something fresh and new. I have never met the guys and I have never seen them live (hopefully this will change) but Barnswallow is one of those bands.
