Imagine for a moment that teen deathsters Decapitated played screamo-punk instead of death metal, and that they were from Staten Island and Brooklyn. You would get Quantice Never Crashed; an adolescent gathering of talent equal if not greater than their peers. Part early Hopesfall, part You Fail me Converge, part Thursday and part Fear Before the March of Flames, Quantice Never Crashed deliver an emotion laced stab of chaotic and also superbly melodic screamo/emo/whatever the fuck-core that’s littered with stunning harmonies and albeit clichéd vocal spats and acoustic segues.

17 year old vocalist, Vinny F sounds… well 17, so he covers the usual slightly annoying, fit throwing high pitched vocal histrionics (“Lighthouses”), but it does come across as honest (at 17, he probably is actually filled with more angst than a 34 year old ‘rock’ star). The fluid yet raw guitars and equally garage produced drums sound all meld together into one flawlessly layered sound that’s years beyond the band’s collective age. The presentation is the usual scream/emo lyrical quirk (“William Shatner’s Powergun”, “Shaolin Casanova”) but musically, the band has it down perfectly, as their harmonic yet feedback drenched, distorted chaos is finely balanced to reach out emotionally, yet deliver a form of caustic nervousness normally associated with Converge. The rough and ready production saps some of the harmonic impact, but does give it a more biting nature that distracts from the usual overly dramatic lyrical subject matter.

The guitars, despite their roughshod delivery are the real stars here, as QNC reel in all forms of obvious screamo/emo influences but twist the riffs into bitter, rending harmonies that connect with Vinny F’s caterwauling. Don’t believe that this is all emo drenched pop-punk for a minute, as QNC deliver some scathing but suitably melodic lines that are far from power chord banality. Just check the short but powerful “Pins and Needles”, the grating immediacy of “Paper Airplanes” or the bitter yet controlled lurch of “Good to the Last Drop”-not one hint of commercial viability here, and I doubt any similarly aged MTV punk/emo band could match the musical and vocal intensity of “Lighthouses”. Even if the Thursday like structures of “Running Man” comes across as the album’s only real contrived moments, it is still melodically assuming and rife with genuine emotional strife. The various acoustic moments (“The Physical Setting of a Dream”, “Any Port in the Storm”) are well done and not too contrived as they generally fit in with the mood of the album rather than come across as piecemeal injections. The album’s cut, the album ending “Two Bullets and a Gun” delivers the kind of soaring, emphatic end note that pulls in all the elements that QNC mix with a polish that belies their youth.

The reality is that most readers of this site will turn their noses up at this album, but in truth, for a debut album, this borders on genre defining brilliance with room yet to improve and (literally) grow.

[Visit the band's website]

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