716458 Records – July 24, 2020
Don’t bother trying to define, just try to keep up
On July 12, 1998 Warped Tour and Ozzfest came together in Somerset, Wisconsin resulting in a 12-hour, six-stage, 48-band event called “Ozz Gets Warped.” This never happened again but Hamilton, Ontario’s genre blending Hotknives is what I imagine the backstage barbeque sounded like as overlapping elements of multiple scenes bleed together on their latest EP I. The five-piece transforms mid-song from metalcore to screamo, dipping its toes into skate punk guitar lines and post-hardcore vocals and never become muddled.
In four songs spanning less than fifteen minutes the band slaloms between the different scenes they revere and shows off more musical creativity than a lot of bands can demonstrate over a twelve track LP. It’s not easy to assume what the band will do track to track, because its so hard to predict the next evolution verse to verse.
I begins with the shrieked line “This isn’t over by a long shot” as opening track “Standing in my Grave” grabs the listener by the shoulders and shakes them into submissiveness. Vocalist Zakk Abrams screams with the passion of a jilted lover as the rhythm section sledgehammers down any preconceptions of what you will get out of this EP. Its easy to assume where the songs will go, but rarely will you be able to correctly predict the next move Hotknives are making.
On “I Want Your Bones,” the listener speeds along an aggressive road trip along the historic lust without trust highway. The band bounces along juxtaposing clean vocals with the impassioned screams of Abrams until the late inclusion of gutteral bellowing in the call and response before the final chorus.
“Grey”and “Euphoria (Let Go) again allow Hotknives to alternate styles and in doing so could make as much sense as the theme to a WWE event as it would on a horror movie’s soundtrack. Hotknives have the ability to combining multiple stale genres and still sound fresh. The scene shape-shifting they do is a testament to the musicianship and creativity they bring in each track on I.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
