Zegema Beach Records has been around for long maintaining and enduring a huge love for diy bands mostly focused on screamo and other related genres. Created by Dave Norman and focusing on hard work and affection for music, last year the Canadian label Zegema had some of their beloved bands signing on to major labels. This article focuses on 3 bands that have been recently signed to Prosthetic Records.
Amygdala offers a voice to those who sometimes remain silent. Hailing from the USA, the band manages to tackle serious and sensitive issues like sexual abuse and mental illness. They are emotionally and politically charged in a whirlwind blend of screamo, crust and hardcore. The vocalist, Bianca Quiñones has a distinct vocal delivery that is melodic and emotional, offering the melodies a grander and sublime dramatic depth. Even though they mix several extreme genres they achieve authenticity and a genuine balance between fierceness and sensitivity. Lyrically wise they are as sincere and visceral as can be, given that the lyrics are inspired and based on Bianca Quiñones’s own experiences.
Our Voices will Soar Forever comprises 11 songs that can and will shake our emotional foundations, giving us a gift for a possible catharsis. The record is their debut on Prothestic Records and should be a precious listen for those that like honest and sincere music that is able to confront and speak about the darker aspects of our experiences.
METH. – Mother of Red Light
As chaotic as they are passionate, Meth. creates an ambiance of disquiet and passionate aggression. The band from Chicago started out as a project from multi-instrumentalist Seb Alvare and later transmuted into a six-piece band. Following the vicious and painful rites of pessimistic sounding bands like Today is The Day, Meth. can and will induce a discomfort that is able to expel our most frightening inner demons.
Using experimentation as a ground to explore and enrich their mathcore-based sound, Meth. can be unpredictable creating a bridge between two contrasting moods such as disquiet and comfort as it can be felt in the pacifying and ethereal sonic landscapes in the song, Psalm of Life.
Mother of Red Light is a record that can be brutally desolate but in a peculiar way provides a haven to meditate and reflect on our most painful emotions.
.GIF from God – Approximation_of_a_Human
Emo-violence with no frills or artifices and with a very cohesive and abrasive mathcore foundation, .GIF from God was born in Richmond, Virginia, and Approximation_of_a_Human is their second LP.
It contains 12 themes that may appear straightforward at first hand but that retain unpredictable song signatures, amusing flirtations with tempos and unpredictable and inventive structures. Despite the unrelenting vocals and a firm base of emo-violence, the band seems to embrace a surrealistic quality that can be felt in the melodies and the names of the songs, such as Mandoorhandhookcardoor, Sassafras Manassas Ass and the strangely poetic Possible Futures in the Minds of Children.
A record that is a great follow-up to their debut and that while remaining pure to the roots manages to reinvent the genre.
Text: Cláudia Zafre
Label: Zegema Beach Records