I’m so happy Household has signed with Blood and Ink Records and is hitting the tour grind hard.
This melodic hardcore band is equal portions faith, grit, intensity, and vulnerability.
Household is pretty young, which is great news. Josh Gilbert fronts the chaos and definitely has no qualms about getting in your face with the band’s convictions – such as “Perfect love casts out fear!” (“Purpose”). You can really hear what he’s saying clearly – laugh if you want, but since some have qualms with hardcore for not being able to make out lyrics, this bears pointing out.
The songs are just unpredictable enough to keep things interesting without losing their accessibility. “Reservoir” is very reminiscent of The Chariot – without seeming like a ripoff.
I’ve read elsewhere that this band seems to have complete control over their sound – a statement I can get completely on board with. The fact that they’ve arrived at this point already shows that they have great things in their future. I like that you can make out some of the flaws in the recording – slight feedback from the amps, voice cracks, etc. Make no mistake, Abigail and Nathanael Olson can kill the guitar, and Josh and Matthew threaten to curb stomp your ear drums with their pounding rhythm section – but as said before, with grit. Not produced. Just raw.
This rawness does not come without moments of beauty. It could certainly be argued that the music here is beautiful precisely because it IS raw, and that is true. However, breaks in the noise for melodic guitar fills are needed and emerge right when we need them to.
With Or Without is a grower. This is another band I had a gut feeling about – I pretty much wanted to like them from the get go, but seeing them live sealed the deal, and the more I listen to this EP, the more icing gets added to my sloppy but tasty hardcore cake.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S96QA_8Gi2o[/youtube]
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