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Deep Elm has long held a reputation for being the best melodic post-hardcore (ok call it emo if you want) label, and I bought this sampler after being impressed with their "Emo Diaries" series. While the "Emo Diaries" are showcases for any band that wants to send in their songs, the Deep Elm Samplers give a broad spectrum of bands actually on the label.
Sound Spirit Fury Fire starts of with some pretty laid back emo courtesy of label stalwarts Appleseed Cast and Benton Falls. The bands contribute songs from past releases and releases that were forthcoming at the time of the Sampler release (early-mid 2001), with Appleseed Cast starting with Steps and Numbers from Low Level Owl: v1 and later appearing with a track from Mare Vitalis. Just when you're drifting blissfully away to Brandtson's chiming guitars you get a big slap in the face from Planes Mistaken For Stars' Leaning The Room to remind you of the emotional hardcore aspect of the label. This seems to be the only really hardcore track on the sampler, but there's plenty of upbeat melodic punk type stuff from Slowride and Camber later on. It's true the album goes very introspective about two-thirds of the way through with the piano and guitar of Starmarket's Coming In From The Cold, the sort of stuff you can turn down to an acceptable volume and relax to (or beat your chest and cry), but most of this stuff is surprisingly experimental and makes good use of the loud/soft dynamic. The album finishes with a track from Pop Unknown (Chris Simpson from Minerals current band), with some great vocals, which could be said of most of the tracks on this album. All in all a good introduction to Deep Elm and it's bands, and well worth the pittance you pay for it.
And now after writing such pretentious bullshit I'm off to review something else...
Jamie
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