The most exciting trend in metal/hardcore (uh, “metalcore,” if you will) is a return to the faster rhythms of older hardcore and punk. It seems that more and more bands are moving away from the near-death metal slow-to-midtempo song with all its cliché breakdowns and chug-chug-chuging to playing thrashy punk like it’s 1988 all over again.
Such is the case with The Banner. Frailty makes The Banner sound like peers of pioneers like Ringworm and Integrity instead of their bastard progeny. “IWIWD,” “Sphrenia,” and “Ratflesh” all display the 90’s hardcore meets 80’s thrash sound Ringworm nearly perfected. Hell, there’s even a semblance of a guitar solo in some of these songs. Damn – don’t hear that much in hardcore any more.
But with a southern doom intro like “Welcome Fuckers” and the devilish funeral march of “The Wolf” opening the album, The Banner let it be known from the get-go that they’re not all about thrash hardcore. In fact, when they’re not playing at breakneck tempos, much of The Banner’s music sounds like the slower, sludgier parts of Converge’s catalog. “A Hellbound Heart,” with it’s saw-grind intro, sounds like it was pulled straight from You Deserve Me. “Dusk,” likewise is born of Bannon and Co.
“On Hooks” may be the best The Banner has to offer. The track starts with a painfully slow wall-of-sound intro, moves on to a two-step NYHC tempo, and then the band just loses it, driving at death wish speed through an almost grindcore sounding rhythm. “On Hooks” is everything The Banner seems to love rolled up in one joint.
Signing The Banner was probably the smartest move Ferret made in a long while. Frailty is a solid blend of doom, hardcore, punk, thrash, and metal. Despite briefly disbanding in 2007, after their Ferret debut Every Breath Haunted, The Banner are back stronger than ever, and have released their best album yet.
mp3: "On Hooks"
myspace: www.myspace.com/thebanner
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