Touché Amoré

…To The Beat Of A Dead Horse

Believe it or not, the word “screamo” used to mean something other than guyliner and Hot Topic haircuts. Back in the day, bands like Portraits Of Past, Swing Kids and Heroin–and a certain record label by the name of Ebullition–combined the sounds of punk, hardcore and the original form of emo-core (Rites of Spring, Embrace, etc.) into a new sound tagged screamo (a.k.a spazz-core). Sure, they’re all a bunch of somewhat meaningless genre names with warped current-day meanings, but, still, it’s nice to see a band in 2009 like Touché Amoré reclaim the word “screamo” and bring it back to its original intentions. Those intentions were, in no particular order; emotional exorcisms via impassioned, hoarse screams; short bursts of chaotic intensity often punctuated by jangly breakdowns; and extremely personal, sociopolitical lyrical scream therapy. All of which Touché Amoré deliver in spades, whether it's quick blasts like “Nine” (44 seconds) or comparatively epic gut-wrenchers like “Always Running, Never Looking Back” (just under two-and-a-half minutes). All told, …To The Beat Of A Dead Horse is less than 20 minutes long, but that just makes it that much sooner before we can listen to this album all over again. At least two or three listens in one sitting will not be out of the ordinary. Trust us.

6131 http://www.6131records.com

“Throwing Copper”