Parallel Worlds

My last post was the Prey 'Unsafe' LP that recently came out on Scene Report Records, and when I picked it up I also grabbed another record that they have put out recently. This record is titled 'In The Comet's Path' by a UK band called Parallel Worlds..

This band have actually been around for the best part of a decade, but have at some point changed their name. The band used to be called Young Conservatives, and I'm going to hazard a guess that they changed their name because the old one made them sound like a group of teenage Tories... which I highly doubt would have enticed the average UK hardcore fan to pick up their records or watch them play live. But even if this was not the reason, I think 'Parallel Worlds' is a better band name generally.

Again, just like the Prey LP, part of the attraction to this record was the artwork. There's something about the cover art for this record that grabs my interest. Without any indication as to what kind of music this band plays, I'd be intrigued to give this a spin. And even though I'm not a big fan of swirl or splatter vinyl colours, this one kinda suits the artwork, so it gets a pass.

The band features the vocalist from The Horror and Imbalance, and Dave on drums from Voorhees and 20 other bands, and a couple of other dudes i don't know who they are. I'm not sure how best to describe their sound. I can hear small elements of the aforementioned bands in places, but this generally sounds nothing like any of them. It's a hardcore record, but there's a lot more going on under the hood. The more I listen, the more I notice subtle little bits of guitar in some of the songs which kinda makes me want to describe this as something other than 'hardcore' as that sounds almost too basic. Whatever is going on here though is certainly interesting and is gonna keep me comnig back for some time. This has been on the daily playlist for the last couple of weeks and I can't see that changing for a while.

When this record came, the label had also thrown in another record for free. This is a record from the band pre name change. 'Non-Exist' is a 5 song EP from 2017 which completely passed me by.

According to discogs there were 250 copies of this one pressed on red vinyl. I'm going to assume that it didn't sell out, which is how come I got given one for free. Anyway, listening to this, I can totally hear how the band has progressed into Parallel Worlds, but this sounds much closer to a more 'traditional' hardcore sound. It almost sounds like sometihng that would have come out on SST circa 1988. Hopefully the new name will help give this band the attention that they deserve.