Title Fight-Shed
Pennsylvanian melodic hardcore troupe Title Fight are still frightfully young but with their Walter Schreifels produced debut album "Shed" they're proving themselves as one of the most exciting new bands around. Playing with the raw intensity of early emo bands such as Lifetime and Jawbreaker, the quartet have nailed the balance between being heartbreakingly emotional and completely live sounding that the former bands helped create.
Opener 'Coxton Yard' hits the ground running at a hundred miles per hour and lasts for just ninety seconds but has hooks to boot, the full-throated chorus of the following title-track carries this quality and doesn't let up until the end of the record, the dual-vocals of Jamie Rhoden and Ned Russin allowing the intensity of the music to really soar at points. It's an equally diverse effort and the influence of Schreifels' own Rival Schools can certainly be heard on the post-hardcore leaning 'You Can't Say Kingston Doesn't Love You' and most evidently on the more melancholic 'Where Am I?' which briefly slows down the pace of the record and allows another side of the band to be showcased in its anthemic introspection.
With the rise of peers such as Touche Amore and La Dispute alongside them, it's great to see the re-emergence of 90s emo blossoming so well and this album plays a good part in that. It's exciting and aggressive but also moody and, at times, tinged with sadness, much like the recent work of the aforementioned, the record feels spacious and engaging, it manages to be many different shades without comprising any sense of quality or cohesion. A genuine punk rock edge pulses through its entirety as well, one can easily envision the band creating the twelve songs comprised in their garage with guitar leads and amps flying everywhere, the same to undoubtedly be repeated thousands of times over in the live environment.
Title Fight are at the start of something great and with their hard work ethic and this killer collection of songs under their belts they'll undoubtedly go on to even greater things. This is a brilliant debut that demands a listener to come back for more.