1) Saetia - A Retrospective Saetia were a short-lived screamo band that unfortunately only really blew up after they'd already split. Sucks for them. This album is a compilation of all the songs they ever released and is made up of the throat-shedding screams, vicious guitarwork and sheer emotion that the band were known for. They were spastic and chaotic, switching from quiet guitar riffs to all out ear-raping noise in the blink of an eye, all accompanied by the rather odd vocals of Billy Werner - his high-pitched shrieks and bizarre spoken-word sections only adding to the awesomeness that is Saetia.
2) Mesa Verde - The Old Road
Mesa Verde perfectly combine the slow, brooding post-rock sound with that of intense, raw screamo, making in the process one of my favourite screamo albums of all time. The Old Road is just so full of despair and misery (yeah, that kind of sounds like a bad thing, but it's not, it's completely totally awesome), it really conveys the sheer emotional.. well.. feeling. The epic final track "Post-Youth" is just perfect, 13 minutes of sheer despair and passion and anger that hits me so hard. I absolutely love it and I really can't describe how awesome it is. Just listen to it.
3) Pg.99 - Document #8When I think 'screamo' the first band that comes to mind is Pg.99. They just embody the screamo sound in my opinion, the raw emotional passion behind it, the sheer guts and heart that's put into the music. It's something that can't really be described and I think should be experienced instead. Pg.99 were chaotic and all over the place, with explosions of noise and grinding passages and sheer emotional awesomeness. While the recording may sound rough at first, you really do adapt to it and it gradually sounds more and more natural and simply perfect. You hear that? Perfect.
4) Sed Non Satiata - Le Ciel De Notre EnfanceSed Non Satiata are at the forefront of a new European wave of screamo bands, incorporating more post-hardcore and post-rock influences into their music than their American peers. Sed Non Satiata are my favourite band that implement this style of screamo, they just do it really, really well. Le Ciel De Notre Enfance is simply a beautiful piece of emotional hardcore, it manages to retain the sheer emotional factor of screamo but adds a melancholic beauty to it that makes for a really quite epic, blissful record. I particularly love the dual guitarwork and just the instrumental prowess in general. It's just beautiful.
5) Funeral Diner - The Underdark
Funeral Diner. I can't help but think anything I say about them would be repeating what I've said before about other bands, because yeah, they play screamo. They play epic screamo. They play it well. Really well. The quiet to loud dynamics are perfect and the whole emotional factor is definitely there - they really mean what they're playing. The songwriting is fantastic and there aren't really any flaws within the album, it's passionate, raw, emotional and ultimately a really damn good screamo release.
And there it is. Done. If you feel that there's anything that I should've put here or that belonged here, or maybe just something I haven't heard. Just whatever really, then I'd appreciate it if you left a comment or a shout or something. That would be cool. So, enjoy.
