ENERGY
For over a decade, the hardcore scene helped launch a broad range of bands that are categorically not “hardcore" by genre-specification. Bands like Saves the Day, New Found Glory, and My Chemical Romance-all big name bands that don't fit into the immediate "hardcore" category all got their starts playing underneath bands like Bane, Give Up The Ghost and H2O. Hardcore has evolved to a place where diversity in style is accepted and if a band is playing music for the right reasons, people will respect it. Regardless of the immediacy of the internet and the simplicity of being heard via MySpace, true talent and a touring work ethic are two things that cannot be replaced. There are still bands traveling under the radar of the music "industry" playing shows in basements and practice spaces barely making enough money to cover gas to the next town, touring and earning their attention rather than waiting for the attention to come to them.
Boston's ENERGY is one of those bands. Prior to the release of their debut full-length Invasions of the Mind the band released a CDEP titled Punch The Clock in early 2007 after a demo immediately caught the attention of Rock Vegas records. Recorded in only two days and drastically different from where the band is now, Punch The Clock showed one undeniable fact-the band was a melodic hardcore band with a lot of promise and vocalist Jason Tankerley had one of the most talented voices in underground music. Sharing the stage with a range of bands from Converge and Set Your Goals to Comeback Kid and Strike Anywhere, the band played as many shows as they could. But one thing that could not be denied is that the band was talented and powerful live and they just needed to showcase how they've grown in the last two years as a band. Enter Bridge Nine Records in the fall of 2007 after hearing demos for what would be songs on the band's debut full-length Invasions of the Mind. Bridge Nine owner Chris Wrenn said, "These guys were always playing shows in Boston, and you could tell that it was only a matter of time before someone caught on and picked them up because they were always getting better. We're lucky we've seen them since they started and knew what their potential has been all along."
Musically, Invasions of the Mind is a melodic hardcore album with a punk backbone that has the vocal and musical melodies and style of late Ignite, Bad Religion, and late 90's AFI and even the melodic tendencies of mid-80s Dischord bands like Dag Nasty. Considering that Bad Religion and Dag Nasty guitarist Brian Baker is a huge influence on guitarist Joe Freedman and Glenn Danzig and Greg Graffin are huge influences on any melodic vocalist in the punk scene for the last two or three decades, Energy takes their influences but adds their own modern dynamic to it. "We have a lot of fast songs," Tankerley says, " and we have the same emotional drive and influences as any hardcore band. We just sound the way we do, and it affords us to play on any kind of show with different kinds of bands, and not seem so different from any of them. We love that." Throughout Invasions, the band creates an atmosphere that takes from hardcore and punk's breakneck tempos, then meander into multi-layered harmonies and catchy choruses ("The Silence"), to mid-tempo bridges that allow the songs time to breathe ("400"), and ragers that end in less than a minute- all the while, the listener is gripped with an 11-song, incredibly confident debut album.
Tank - Vocals • Joe Freedman - Guitar • Dan Mancini - Guitar • Conor O'Brien - Bass • Justin Flaherty - Drums
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