Only Living Witness-best band you've never heard
Anon
Posts: 11,175
here's a review of one of my favorite bands. here's their myspace http://www.myspace.com/olw check them out and fall in love.
It’s true what they say: The best artists usually don’t get many props until well after they’re gone. Few bands embody this adage like Only Living Witness, who spent six violent years playing on Boston hardcore bills—generally for audiences of skinheads and meatballs—even though they often sounded nothing like the bands they shared a stage with. Occupying a sharply defined sonic purgatory between poetic post-hardcore, triumphant anthem rock and slash-and-burn metal, Witness played the kind of music that, if appropriated by the early ’90s major label marketing machine, could have easily been the East Coast’s answer to the grunge trifecta of Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Nirvana. Then again, OLW had no designs on mass appeal and none of the backing that could have got them there to begin with. Plus, they broke up before releasing their second album, Innocents, thus rendering the songs that could have propelled them into the stratosphere (“Downpour,” “No Eden,” “Knew Her Gone,” “Strata”) a flock of lame ducks that Century Media had little incentive to promote.
Still, during the time Witness existed (1989-1995), there were few bands in their league: Not only does Jonah J. Jenkins possess one of the most potent singing voices in rock/metal/what-have-you, he also happens to be one of the best lyricists—in any genre—of the last 30 years. Guitarist Craig Silverman wrote riffs that are, to this day, recycled third-hand by metalcore douchebags who don’t even know where they originated. Drummer Eric Stevenson and bassist Chris Crowley could easily be teaching Rock Rhythm Section clinics at Berklee, were it not for the fact that the mere idea of a “clinic” belies the pure instinct with which they played. And it’s no surprise that Century Media is re-releasing these tragically underappreciated albums now: Shadows Fall recently covered OLW’s “December” (the final track from Prone Mortal Form) on their Fallout From the War collection, and Jenkins (currently of sludge-enhanced, palindromic D-beat captains Raw Radar War) has guest appearances on the forthcoming and latest albums from Converge and 36 Crazyfists, respectively. Re-mastered and re-packaged as a two-disc set—with bonus tracks (mostly demo versions of the songs on the albums)—Prone Mortal Form and Innocents stand as testaments to both a greatness that once was and that which could have been. —J. Bennett
It’s true what they say: The best artists usually don’t get many props until well after they’re gone. Few bands embody this adage like Only Living Witness, who spent six violent years playing on Boston hardcore bills—generally for audiences of skinheads and meatballs—even though they often sounded nothing like the bands they shared a stage with. Occupying a sharply defined sonic purgatory between poetic post-hardcore, triumphant anthem rock and slash-and-burn metal, Witness played the kind of music that, if appropriated by the early ’90s major label marketing machine, could have easily been the East Coast’s answer to the grunge trifecta of Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and Nirvana. Then again, OLW had no designs on mass appeal and none of the backing that could have got them there to begin with. Plus, they broke up before releasing their second album, Innocents, thus rendering the songs that could have propelled them into the stratosphere (“Downpour,” “No Eden,” “Knew Her Gone,” “Strata”) a flock of lame ducks that Century Media had little incentive to promote.
Still, during the time Witness existed (1989-1995), there were few bands in their league: Not only does Jonah J. Jenkins possess one of the most potent singing voices in rock/metal/what-have-you, he also happens to be one of the best lyricists—in any genre—of the last 30 years. Guitarist Craig Silverman wrote riffs that are, to this day, recycled third-hand by metalcore douchebags who don’t even know where they originated. Drummer Eric Stevenson and bassist Chris Crowley could easily be teaching Rock Rhythm Section clinics at Berklee, were it not for the fact that the mere idea of a “clinic” belies the pure instinct with which they played. And it’s no surprise that Century Media is re-releasing these tragically underappreciated albums now: Shadows Fall recently covered OLW’s “December” (the final track from Prone Mortal Form) on their Fallout From the War collection, and Jenkins (currently of sludge-enhanced, palindromic D-beat captains Raw Radar War) has guest appearances on the forthcoming and latest albums from Converge and 36 Crazyfists, respectively. Re-mastered and re-packaged as a two-disc set—with bonus tracks (mostly demo versions of the songs on the albums)—Prone Mortal Form and Innocents stand as testaments to both a greatness that once was and that which could have been. —J. Bennett
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this is what to buy. give it a shot. you can get it used for what,? $5.
Cool, I'm gonna pick it up.