“We are Gutter Crowns: Murray, Dylan, Lucy and Aaron. We play tons of emo bangers and love to drink soda and play Halo 3 on Saturday’s. What does that mean? It means we have no idea what we are doing but love playing music and love playing for people who share the same love for music as us. Check us out!”
Isn’t this one of the best band introductions ever? These “kids” are from Welland, Ontario.
Listening to their EP: “Is That All You Want?”
So, you say “emo”, I say grunge/alternative. Is it generational? Very likely, but not definitely, because I don’t know how old the band members are. Also, we are all very much influenced by our own favourite sounds, and everything tends to sound like those.
Personally, I hear a lot of grunge elements here, like Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, especially on the vocals, but also a lot of prog rock/metal and alternative influence. Maybe a little bit of punk, too, especially on some bass lines and drum parts.
As soon as the singer broke into scream vocals, I thought, there we go, here is the emo piece of this musical puzzle that I was missing. And the only reason I say “emo” is that there is a very particular way screaming vocals are used in say death metal, punk or emo, and this is definitely “marked” by some early 2000s bands who blended clean and scream vocals in that musical context for the first time.
In many cases, the combo is syncopated or punkier verses, breaking then into very melodic and semi-synth choruses that basically sound like pop but with heavy guitars. In the case of Gutter Crowns, there are no “nicely” sung choruses, and the heavy parts are not metal at all, but rather hardcore/punk and at their more acoustic and mellow side (mellow being a euphemism here, these guys can rock!), bringing in that melancholic vibe with a grunge touch.
The ep refers to the five stages of grief according to the Kübler-Ross model: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Depression is missing here, perhaps because within an emo context, it is ever-present? That is as far as I can think in terms of associations, and I would love to find out the official explanation if there is one!
The overall sound is raw and in-your-face, and the EP is short, non-repetitive, and well-written and executed.
Written by Spiros Maus
