#dawnbreed

Every Record I Own - Day 294: Dawnbreed Aroma

A lot of the hardcore I found the most exciting at the end of the ‘90s was coming out of Europe. Dawnbreed’s Kiosk album had been a welcome curveball to a scene that was beginning to feel like it had fallen into a formula, and their ‘97 follow-up Aroma was an equally unique record. It had the manic energy of the Drive Like Jehu and Nation of Ulysses but it also had these chunky and dizzying breakdowns that would eventually be popularized by bands on the Hydra Head roster. And like its predecessor, there were these fleeting passages of musical tropes that fell completely outside the metal and punk world, though they felt a little less shoehorned into place this time around.

Every Record I Own - Day 293: Dawnbreed Kiosk

I think about this record a lot. 

Dawnbreed was a German hardcore band that took the heavy, metallic, riff-driven template of the mid-’90s and began injecting it with fragments of outlying music styles. The songs can go from a brutal, palm-muted chug breakdown into a passage of jazz guitar or a spazzy Nation of Ulysses-style freakout into a  Motown soul chorus in the blink of an eye. If this all sounds a little like Refused’s Shape of Punk to Come, you’re right, but Kiosk has a three-year lead on the landmark Swedish album. Dawnbreed was a little less concerned with hooks, polished recordings, or crossing over to American audiences (all lyrics are in German) than their Swedish colleagues, and as a result they never had the same crossover success.

Kiosk is a record I loved back when it came out. But I rarely listen to it anymore, and I frequently see it in used bins for less than $10. It was never a popular record, even in hardcore circles. It never achieved any sort of cult status. And even folks like myself that fell in love with it’s strange energy seem to have weeded it from their collections over the last twenty+ years. So I think about this record whenever I look at my record collection and think “i really need to thin the herd.” But then I put Kiosk on, and I’m reminded of how ahead of the time it felt back in ‘95-’96, and I think... will my collection really feel that much more carefully curated if I sell it? Is it worth holding onto something that I only listen to when I’m thinking about how I don’t really need it?

Bluetip • The Trans Megetti • Dawnbreed • The Reflex • July 31st @ Planet Trog - Allentown, Pennsylvania