Raise Your Eyes

Day: 11/29/2006
Artist: Navio Forge
Recording: As We Quietly Burn A Hole Into... Album

A used copy of this rare early 90s emo gem came into the store and so it had to be played. It's emo in the grand tradition of Rites of Spring, Embrace, Moss Icon and the like: diy punk/hardcore with its energies and musical vocabularies refocused. It is the independent spirit of hardcore trying to fights its way out of the hypermacho straightjacket it had built for itself, while remaining uncompromising and underground. The riffs reminiscent of early fugazi in their winding, spacious, and oddly catchy ways. The bass sounds incredibly heavy (but not distorted), like concrete blocks being dropped. The singer borders on being over the top with his near-sobbing, but there is a sincerity to the whole thing that makes it crushing, not cringing. (It's also helpful to remember that some of the lyrics on this record that might sound cliche had not been beaten into the ground by underground bands yet.)

If you can find this record and like emotionally and musically intense music that doesn't rely on metal tropes to generate that heaviness and intensity, definitely pick it up. Or, you can find some info and links to some mp3s here.