DPR NDR

Review

Check out this review of DEEPER UNDER

http://nuskull.hu/lemezkritikak/joshuas-song-deeper-under-review/

There’s a lame stereotype in Europe about the Belgians that they only stop raising their level of endorphin by eating chocolate when they check out the news from the European Parliament, so it might be quite surprising for some people that the first three bands that come to my rock-prefering, emo-loving, melody-oriented mind from Belgium are dark, hateful and misanthropic: they are Oathbreaker, Amenra and Rise and Fall. Since the country’s scene isn’t too enormous, it’s no surprise that Joshua’s Song shares members with one of them: Ivo and Lennart play in Oathbreaker, Deathwish’s shooting star from last year. When I add Wim „Stief Positief” Berchmans (vocalist of the acclaimed hardcore punk band, Justice) and Sike (who played guitar in Not Afraid alongside Stief and Packo from True Colours) to the equation you can’t help imagining a filthy hardcore/metalcore sound, but it’s not what you get from the songs of Deeper Under. I guess that this album represents Wim’s desire to follow the footsteps of his „colleagues” Walter Schreifels (Gorilla Biscuits/Quicksand/Rival Schools), Pete Appleby (Count Me Out/Renee Heartfelt/Memorial) and Chris Higdon (Falling Forward/Elliott/Frontier(s)) by resting the Airmax and musically heading to a softer, more melodic direction. These nine tracks are the first major advent of this changing and the swan song of this short-lived project at the same time as half of the band became pretty busy after the release of Maelstrom, so they decided to break up after the completion of Deeper Under (Stief and Sike kept on playing together with their buddy from Not Afraid, Gert under the name Filler and they already have a demo). After the last sounds of the record their fate can only be described as “regrettable” since this album is a  great promise – half of which is pending, but half of which has already been kept, as some of the songs flawlessly recall the work of Align, Handsome and Rival Schools. What does that mean? It means that they turned the heritage of Quicksand and Supertouch into excellent, hardcore-rooted rock songs.

Deeper Under kicks off with a great cover art and powerful, dynamic hit songs (Straight Talk, Strain, NFWL), and it instantly turns out that Wim’s clear vocal style is really good and really special at the same time, and it has a key role in giving these tracks a chance at having mainstream success. Contrary to Gypsy’s record (whose singer-guitarist, Alex Russin supervised the mixing of the demo) but similarly to Diamond and I Hate Our Freedom some of their songs could easily get a lot of airplay on mainstream radio stations. However the majority of the album isn’t made up of potential rock hits but of melodies of 90s post-hardcore: although there is a constant vibe of catchiness throughout the record, after NFWL the immense influence of the Quicksand generation becomes quite obvious (mainly in X’ed and Fijgs). There is a part of Deeper Under which is „only” promising, but it doesn’t fall short of this year’s post-hardcore releases (Gypsy, I Hate Our Freedom, Aeges) and it gives the listener a strong feeling about how catchier, how more dynamic a next album could have gotten if they hadn’t broken up. One of Europe’s best releases in this year, and one of our continent’s best post-hardcore records of all time.

8.5/10

Joshua’s Song - Deeper Under LP out now

Altough we’re not really a band anymore, we’re happy to announce the release of our first and only full length LP on Collision records from Finland. Because of Oathbreakers’ signing to Deathwish records, Ivo & Lennart are obviously pre-occupied with better, more productive things. I for one, am very happy about both facts (Oathbreakers’ singing and the JS lp still being released.) So it’s all good. You can get the LP here:

http://www.collisionrecs.bigcartel.com/product/joshua-s-song-deeper-under-lp

The art is done by my friend Spoiler. I’m stoked to be still putting out records with skinheads drawn by Spoiler on the cover.

Me and Hans have joined forces with Gert from DEAD STOP to form a new superband called FILLER. We’ve opened up for Scream last week and all went well.

facebook.com/fillerfillerfiller for more info

A backdrop is being designed by Ward Heirwegh and Lieven Lahaye as we speak and we’re planning to listen to Youth of Today before every set we play just to get in the right mood. We’ll see how that works out. In the meantime we’re trying to figure out who the hell is playing drums for the Bad Brains in this video.

Any clues are much appreciated, we’re losing a lot of sleep trying to figure this out.

DEEPER UNDER

We recorded a record. 

This is how it’s going to look.

The summer is ours.

get on, get on

Supertouch were playing Wales last monday and Alex Cardiffcityhardcore was cool enough to put us on the bill. Our show went ok, we were spared from any technical difficulties and the great sound in Le Pub gave us that extra push.  Check out this review of our set:

The supporting line up was also really well placed, and a real mix of bands representing some often overlooked UK talents, along with openers JOSHUA’S SONG who had flown in from belgium to bring their brand of grunge laden hardcore to Wales. These guys played a real tight set, the singer was probably the strongest point, he had a huge voice and gave them an edge that I haven’t heard in a lot of other bands. They sounded a bit like Quicksand or Rival Schools musically, but vocally a lot cleaner. I was into them, their melodies reminded me in part of Supertouch themselves, so they were definitely a fitting opener for the show. The rumoured Justice reunion didn’t go ahead in the end, but it didn’t matter because these guys were great.

For a full review of the show go here

Also, props to Alex for booking solid openers such as Loose Nut from Ireland and Tremors from London, both grabbing my attention for their entire set. Harbour from Cardiff sounded refreshing to me in a time when hardcore bands (or at least hardcore bands that are trying to do something interesting musically, I liked the Bad Brains styled breaks alot) are few and far between and they were tight as hell, altough the singer could def improve, but they seemed to miss that X-factor that I can’t really place my finger on, or maybe I was just too excited for Supertouch to start. Seriously though, I can’t think of the last time I was at a show where all the bands were worth checking out and I will definitely keep an eye out for them.

Supertouch didn’t disappoint and showed us all that they have the right attitude and are still very much into the music they’re playing.  The new EP is almost flawless and it’s been a long time since I’ve read lyrics that told me that much about myself.  If you’re not into Supertouch’s sound, there’s still no denying that these guys are defining everything that’s cool about NYHC.

“Do you ever feel
that there’s times
where’ you stay
keep going with something
but inside you’re afraid
and it takes all that you’ve got.
Got no date or a time that I’ve set
I’m just following something inside
and I wait cuz there’s no other way”