400 Blows
Black Rainbow
Tone Capsule Records
2002
www.400blows.net
What were we talking about the other night? Fiberglass chairs & fucking? No, no, 400 Blows, that’s right. I knew it was something that puts a smile on my face. Black Rainbow…so Ronnie James Dios. The heavy heavy happiness of it all. Black Rainbow is amazing. An atom bomb going off in your ear (let the clichés fly baby!). Christian’s wide wailin’ chords. Thick. Propellant. Monster guides through the time changes. Guitar riffing enough for two bands. Who needs a bass player? My body responds like it did with Ginn. Like it still does with Buzzo. The true beauty: Skot’s vocals are decipherable for once. Skot is the venerable punky popster, performing with all the snot and nonchalance of a teenager. Sure, he knows better, but he still hasn’t learned his lessons. Naughty boy. And finally, Ferdi. Too low in the mix? I want more. More drums. More noise. Bigger. Louder. Rawer!
Black Rainbow is a loud (albeit undermixed) project. Yeah, the balance is a bit off. (“Dr. Albini. Paging Dr. Albini”). The composition of each song is classic hardcore – a simplistic, yet forceful order that GregGinn or perhaps Paige Hamilton would appreciate. This is aggressive music that has no rhyme nor reason and has just enough piddling in the musical gene pool to produce a unique experience…one to be appreciated in a hardcore scene full of poseurs and wannabes. It doesn’t rely on the classic pop-bait of lost loves and self pity. It is like your best friend handing you a tall-boy after he/she blackened your eye in a drunken brawl. Each song takes nothing for granted and lunges forward like a drunk falling down a flight of stairs. I’ve never been one to “mosh” per se, but this here music is just the thing to catapult me right into the arena to take my 400 Blows and continue jousting amongst my fellow good patrons, lunging drunks all!
-This confessional by Julia Brown and JS